Re: Yes
To Matt 21 who said '[energy retailers will] cut off individuals remotely and say that they've exceeded "fair use" at a time of "short supply".'
In my experience this is not the way privatised monopolies operate. Local distributors will always encourage load growth and try to take conductors and substations above the nameplate rating at peak times (e.g. summer air-con hear in Oz). That way they get to grow the asset base next year.
Retailers without hedge fund protection might wish to disconnect customers at times of high wholesale prices, but do they get to control the switch, other than for unpaid bills? Probably not.
A "good" system from the industry perspective is one with enough generation and transmission capacity in the national grid to cover cold snap and heatwave conditions on a weekday, but with each suburb (zone substation and downstream HV/LV distribution) just weak enough to fail in streets where customers go ballistic with excessive consumption.
Such a balance provides overall resilience to the national transmission grid, but provides group punishment (aka load shedding) for some locations where your neighbours (never you of course!) have more money than brains and love wasting electricity, cooking the planet with global warming, etc.
Michael G, aka voltscommissar
Biting the hand that feeds IT
