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- Hacker News
- Do they still occur now that nobody is watching linear TV?by inigyou
- Yes. There are still large culturally significant events, such as the World Cup, that enough people gather around over to be of note.by fragmede
- I have to wonder if growing grid battery storage systems for solar have made it easier to automate this. The reason they need to predict it is because turbine based generation has a spin up time, but batteries are instant.by ChiperSoft
- “Such sudden huge surges in demand tied to the TV schedule are unique to the United Kingdom.”
Why? (The text source doesn’t make this claim.)
- Jump down to the Cause section. Millions of high-powered electric kettles being switched on during a popular show's break.by pulvinar
- Further linked within was an old BBC article; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6981356.stm
"... there aren't very many examples of sudden decreases in demand triggered by TV programmes. A rare example would be the two minutes' silence at 11am on Remembrance Sunday, but this occurs during daylight hours so is nowhere near comparable."
I'm remembering when the Queen passed now - it was very interesting to see a lot of systems at some major retailers lose their minds because of a super sharp order volume drop from normal expectations. It fired off all sorts of automations to investigate service outages... only for a few tickets a few minutes later to pop in to announce the death of the Queen and how to work that onto the homepage.
by kotaKat