[eru]

Once you sign up customers for 'cheaper electricity, but you have to agree to the occasional loadshedding', you can probably also sign them up for a bit of 'oh, and please burn some more electricity, when we tell you to'.

The former is already happening and useful, the latter would be a relatively simple and easy add-on that could be used to offer ever so slightly cheaper electricity.

[jounker]

My washing machine has a timer. I do the wash when local electricity rates are near zero.

[eru]

Yes, and you could imagine telling your utility: just kick off the laundry anytime in this time interval, in return for cheaper electricity.