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Notes -
Grid load balancing is pretty fundamental to energy policy. Even ordinary people are bombarded by messaging telling them not to run appliances in the middle of the day.
Where? I have never been told that once in my life*, let alone been bombarded with it.
*not even as a child, since that's apparently important.
I've never heard this message directly, but I recall being told of the message in reference to preventing blackouts in other parts of the USA than where I live, I think California during the summer (air conditioning would stress the grid). More generally, during the past 10 years, with electric vehicles being big in the public consciousness, I recall conversations about how EVs wouldn't stress the power grid much, explicitly because they can be charged at night for the day's use, and the energy needs at night tend to be much lower than during the day (since people tend to sleep, and sleeping people tend to use less electricity), thus providing slack in the energy grid which is meant to function during much higher load times in the day. I've also heard it in reference to renewable energy and its advantages and disadvantages, such as how solar energy tends to produce energy when it's sunny which also tends to correlate with when there are greater energy needs, versus wind energy which tends to produce energy when it's windy, which for whatever reason tends to correlate with night when there are lesser energy needs.
Perhaps it's overselling it to say laymen are "bombarded" with such messaging, particularly specifically about not running one's own appliances during the day, but from my experience, the importance of load balancing for keeping the power grid functioning well is pretty well emphasized in the public messaging.
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