[jsmith45]

The problem is not so much the concept, as how tricky it would be to add the loads back in at just the right rate to not trip some or all the generation back off again. Sure once you have enough generation and load already online, adding the rest is relatively straightforward. Still need to be careful, but after a certain point it would look to utility operators much like the usual work restoring loads and sources after a large area blackout.

The trickiness seems worst close to the very beginning when even relatively small misestimation of a chunk of load being restored would have a proportionally bigger impact. Many loads are not completely predictable, so presumably they would need to favor bringing some of the more stable loads online early so that normal variation from the loads that can only be predicted well in aggregate won't vary enough to trip everything back offline.