Yeah, similarly with insulation / good building practices, my house can lose power in coldest of days and i do not have to put on hoodie for 2 days. (not heating by other means like wood, which i do not have) it is not big house tho. it is insane to me that in country where there are tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires hundreds of times per year, we do not do this / build like this by default.

In europe, there is possibility to be on "energy spot prices", essentially utility will charge you energy market prices. today price at noon was almost zero. last Sunday, prices were negative - they literally pay you to draw from grid. but at evening, price can be quite high.

so having simple time relay / or more complex minicomputer directly reading energy market prices and switching loads can even earn you some money. it is not money making business but overall price can drop significantly. it is also an economic incentive to buy battery storage and actually got to paid it off.

Enabling citizens to do good thing is underrated.

people with "standard" contract are essentially subsidizing industry, corporations which have cheaper electricity because of bundling with residential customers. which makes weird and complicated incentive structures. essentially anti-market behavior in country which boasts itself in "capitalistic" structures... and slowing adoption of renewables, because it looks like they are more expensive than they actually are.