EV charging and hydro generation/distribution challenges

[danbrotherston]

As long as there is enough electricity (being generated) for everyone, that makes sense.

What does that mean? A wealthier society can afford to generate more electricity than a poor society. In 99% of societies that have existed to date, “enough” electricity was none at all; and even now, “enough” in most places is an amount that probably wouldn’t run my dishwasher.

There is no way around it: you can ration by price, letting each person decide how to use their resources; or you can pretend that a central planner is capable of figuring out what people need and want. Hint: they can’t.

There is more than just price which impacts consumption. Economics are not pure. We have different abilities to consume power. For example, a society which outlawed EVs (or never invented them) would see individuals using less power than one which didn't, even if power is cheaper. Cheap power also encourages uses which we wouldn't see in a society with expensive power (like, desalination for example), but it's not true that economics is the only way to affect consumption. Especially something like desalination, is likely to be centrally planned, a society could choose not to do it, even if there was cheap power.