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Old 09-25-2012, 12:28 PM   #41
jammies
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HELPNEEDED View Post
there will be no sustainable management of such, if even 5% of cars switched to electric use, electricity rates would go sky high, and so would coal combustion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HELPNEEDED View Post
Have you ever taken an economics class? It does not matter if consumption is still below capacity. Economics don't require calculations in the case I have presented, its a simple qualitative analysis.
See your first quote? It matters very much how much extra load there is, because "sky high", while hardly precise, implies there will be shortages of electricity and coal that will drive prices way, way, up. If the current capacity of the system is sufficient to handle the increased load, those prices may go up, but saying they will go way way up NO MATTER WHAT the increased load is, is asinine.

What it 0.1% of cars were converted? 0.5%? How about 2%? What is the magic behind 5% that makes you absolutely certain that this is the breaking point that will make rates soar? Answer: you have no idea, you just took a likely sounding number and went with it.

-edit- Looks like average daily power consumption in Alberta is around 200 megawatts, so adding the 11.2 megawatts/day to power 5% of our cars with electricity would add 5.6% demand. Or, to put it in perspective, about the same amount of additional capacity needed in Alberta just thru growth from 2007-2012, and I haven't noticed rates going "sky-high" or coal seams being exhausted just yet.
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Last edited by jammies; 09-25-2012 at 12:38 PM.
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