When you turn on your TV, the electricity is produced by a powerplant and delivered to you across the power lines. There is no storage tank of electricity that is slowly filled up or depleted as people need it. When you ask for power, it’s made and delivered to you, almost instantaneously. So when lots and lots of people are all asking for electricity at the same time, it puts a lot of pressure on the power plants to keep producing more and more electricity. Over the last few years, with the introduction of much more renewable electricity, it’s gotten more difficult to respond to those drastic increases in electric demand.
It’s like going to the amusement park. If everyone gets in line for the same ride at the same time, no one is going to have much fun. But if we spread out when people get in line, you don’t wait as long, and everyone gets to have fun. If we all cut back a little and try to spread out when we’re using electricity, we won’t run into as many emergencies where there is too much demand and not enough supply.