But peak demand, which is what sets the capacity, is fed by some pretty inefficient stuff, like gas turbines, older plants, etc. You don't want to use that stuff for "base" load, and so a bunch of new plants would be required. Also as the grid gets close to its peak capacity, it gets less stable.
Predicting peak demand was the subject of my Master's Thesis, in 1977 so any conclusions and details are probably OBE. FWIW, the conclusion was that you might be able to usefully predict next summers peak demand, if the weather cooperates.
what I would like to know is...
how much idle capacity is there in the
‘sum capacity’ of nuke and coal electric stations,
at night. either in the US or anywhere else.
I realize there are , down times, seasonal factors, etc,
hydro power probably needs to be saved for the day because
of water shortages.
any comments welcome, BTW.