[varenc]

I think the 2015 electric consumption was 10000x of what the 600kW edison plant could generate?

This is a great example of how things get simpler if we drop the over time part of the units and simplify it to just the average power draw.

So in 2015 NYC consumed 52836 GWh. So the average power draw is 52836 GWh / 365 days = 6031510 kW . As in, at any given moment in 2015 NYC was on average pulling 6031510 kW or 6.03 GW.

The edison Pearl Street station could output 600kW. (and that's the theoretical peak of all 6x dynamos, probably less output in practice)

6031510 kW / 600 kW = 10052.5 so I think our current consumption is about 10000x higher not 7x-10x higher than the Pearl St station's output!

[rzzzt]

These are two different power plants. I could not find more info about the one that opened in 1920 and is actually in the article.