The Power Company™️

The short answer is about 725,000 homes. But this assumes that consumption is steady, without peaks in the day time or during air conditioning season. If you account for uneven use and especially for distribution loss, a more realistic answer is probably around 300,000 homes. Let’s look at the assumptions and calculation… Let me extrapolate from my own electric bill. I have a 7 room home with 3 family members, 3 bedrooms, many computers, TVs, and a fully finished, brightly lit basement. We heat our home and hot water with gas, but we use an electric washer and dryer and our biggest consumption is very likely our big electric oven and stove. We almost always have heating elements burning in the many coffee makers, rice cooker, waffle maker, toaster oven, etc. My daughter uses a 1600W hot air blow dryer every day. The garage has an electric door and electric stoves washer and dryer. We do not have central air, but we have four window air conditioners ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 BTU. During July and August, we often use 3 units at the same time. The air conditioning increases our electric consumption by about 50%. On the other hand, we practice conservation religiously and and have swapped in ultra efficient LED lighting, refrigerator and TVs. We use motion detectors to ensure that lights are shut off when we leave rooms. With all of this conservation (and with gas heating), we consume between 400 and 750 kWh each month (425 in our most recent month — March — which doesn’t require air conditioning). Based on discussions with neighbors (especially, those with more than 3 residents or those that entertain more frequently), I have learned that their bills are 40~75% higher than mine. So, I am betting that a typical home with non-electric heating uses about 1,000 kWh per month.Update—added after this answer was published: It appears that my guesstimate is close to factual. The US Energy Information Administration says that in 2014, average US home electrical consumption was 911 kWh per month.There are about 725 hours in a month, which means that a typical home burns, on average, about (1000 ÷ 725) = 1.38 KWH on average. A gigawatt is a billion watts. Based on the above assumptions, a gigawatt power generator (if attached to a constant load without peaks), should power about 725,000 homes. Incidentally, 1 Gigawatt is more power than produced by conventional power plants. 44% of power in the USA comes from coal. A typical coal powered plant produces 547 MW of power at full capacity. Nuclear power accounts for 34% of US power production. The output of nuclear plants in America range from 500MW to 4 GW. The Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona is the largest with three reactors and a total capacity of just under 4 GW.