[robocat]

In New Zealand (and many other countries I believe) there are regulations that prevent disconnection when a household needs power for heating in winter. There are also complexities associated with whether a household has critical medical equipment that has a dependency on electricity, which can’t be safely disconnected.

I think these regulations came into place after people died due to the cold, or died because they needed their oxygen generator and power was cut. Possibly the regulations were proactive.

I worked with a company that built prepay power systems that communicated by modem, and cut the power when the money ran out... except when the regulations (mostly sensible rules) kicked in to prevent harm.

In New Zealand there is also a ripple control system to shed domestic loads during peak demand (mostly hot water cylinders).