[drakythe]

Because they need to forecast power requirements ahead of time. Maximum efficiency of resources is not just smart for greenhouse emissions it is smart for not spending more money than necessary to supply power.

Additionally, they need to know which clients to restore power to first (hospitals and essential services) and who can wait (commercial buildings on a weekend? Back of the line)

Note: it isn’t that they know exactly what the power is used for, but they sure know the general purpose (residential, industrial, critical service, tech, etc)