Originally Posted By: wfaulk
The only endemic *-out problems I can think of in the US were the rolling blackouts in California in the early 2000s, but that was due to electricity market manipulation by Enron.

Even if the *-outs were caused by Enron there will be issues with power distribution unless they upgrade significantly.

Originally Posted By: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/commentaries/housing.asp#cars
In England 27 per cent of households do not own a car or van while 44 per cent of households own just one, 24 per cent own two, 4 per cent own three and 1 per cent own four or more.


Out of a village of 1000, there will be 1000 cars roughly if those percentages are accurate. Not all of them will be used all the time however. Even just assuming that only 1/4 of those cars are in use and charged every day means the electricity consumption has gone up 0.5MW when the entire village only uses 1MW peak.