[floatrock]

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.

[kabwj]

>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.

[agumonkey]

dry toilets and solar concentrator kettles, yesterday

[llukas]

Or battery to handle short spike in demand (backed with gas turbine if risk of prolonged spikes).

[Scoundreller]

Or a wifi connected kettle or toilet that pre-heats pre-commercial or delays tank re-fill respectively.