Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if it is cost effective going forward to install two meters and panels on every house with one being “essential” and the other being “intermittent” so the power company has the option of blacking out the intermittent boxes only. I’d rather have all my computers, lights, etc shut down than my whole house.
You might be better off capping the power for each home and letting their occupants decide what is essential or not.
Of course there's already a hard cap (usually ~9kW over here), but I suspect most people never reach it.
There are plans in Belgium to charged based on peak power (something silly like "max power used in any 15 minute period"), which would drive up the cost for the average consumer without reducing demand (as people tend not to have much choice in when they use their most power hungry appliances).