10-04-2017, 07:44 PM
Electrical generation and transmission systems may not always meet peak demand requirements the greatest amount of electricity required by all utility customers within a given region. In these situations, overall demand must be lowered, either by turning off service to some devices or cutting back the supply voltage (brownouts), in order to prevent uncontrolled service disruptions such as power outages (widespread blackouts) or equipment damage. Utilities may impose load shedding on service areas via rolling blackouts or by agreements with specific high-use industrial consumers to turn off equipment at times of system-wide peak demand.