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by hfkajshfaks 2561 days ago
It's winter in Argentina now, so they don't have AC loads. TVs are small by comparison (Although it's fascinating to see how load changes during large games: you can spot commercials, for example!)
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In the UK, this phenomenon is called the TV Pickup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup

Basically a commercial break comes on, everyone turns on their tea kettle and flushes their toilets, and bam: 200-400 MW spike in demand.

There's some blogs out there charting this during big world cup games.

>There is a common misconception that the number one driver of TV pickup is the boiling of kettles. In fact, this only creates a pull on the local network for a short period of time until the water has boiled, and can therefore be managed relatively easily, whereas flushing the toilet causes a longer surge at the water and sewerage pumping stations, and opening the refrigerator lets the chilled air escape, causing the compressor to run. These loads are more of a problem for the grid.
dry toilets and solar concentrator kettles, yesterday
Or battery to handle short spike in demand (backed with gas turbine if risk of prolonged spikes).
Or a wifi connected kettle or toilet that pre-heats pre-commercial or delays tank re-fill respectively.