Most power outages are due to weather events. I guess you can say the the power grids need to be "hardened" against the weather. Texas and California are the prime examples of weather issues. Power generation in the US has been flat for about a decade at about 4 trillion kWhs. The fuel sources have changed quite a bit with coal down and natural gas up. Apparently this is currently sufficient but I would expect this to increase somewhat over the next decade or so to accommodate electric cars. However, keep in mind that most recharging will probably be done at night when demand is low so peak loads might not be impacted that much.
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Originally Posted by Number 10 GI
For a long time now the electric grid system has been severely strained to meet demand during peak usage times. There are rolling brown outs due to the strain on a weak system and I haven't heard of any efforts being made to correct the problem. The powers that be won't do anything until the grid completely fails and then it will cost huge amounts of money and time to fix the problem. Politicians don't act, they only react so don't expect any efforts to expand electric generation.
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