This is in the UK. Hundreds of businesses to be paid to switch off to prevent blackouts.

Hundreds of businesses could be paid to switch off their power between 4pm and 8pm on winter weekdays as soon as next winter to prevent blackouts, under plans approved by regulator Ofgem.

Mothballed old gas-fired power stations will also be paid to come back to stand-by so they can be fired up to prevent the lights going out when demand is high.

There must be people who think that electric power is a form of magic that just comes through the wires and will always be there no matter what. But even this is just for now, “Ofgem said the margin of electricity supply capacity over demand could narrow to between 2pc and 5pc by 2015 and 2016.” And after that it will get better all by itself.