More in response to the luddites (you know who you are!):

Ensuring a society's electricity supply requires 
considerable planning. Electricity cannot be stored, 
which means that overproduction is wasted. But there 
needs to be enough supply to ensure that peaks of demand 
can be satisfied. This relatively straightforward 
challenge has become the source of major controversy.

When electricity supply is discussed outside 
professional circles, it is generally to decry its 
privatisation or to highlight the need for energy 
conservation. But these criticisms are misplaced, 
because neither starts from the aim to ensure sufficient 
energy to meet our needs.
....
Rest at:
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA730.htm 

James Greenstein