the other night we had a rolling black out @ 3 am, i woke up and got some hobo coffee goin on the stove and watched the power come back on. it was telling . the lights on the neighbors houses didnt go back on all at once, but like christmas tree lights they came on randomly, slowly. Anybody who does electrical will tell you , flipping on an entire sqaure mile of houses is a huge amperage inrush, transformer popping as there is still a huge amount of load present. Its done with the smartmeters we were all forced to get. the random way all the lights in the neighbor hood came back on proved it.

While my thermostat is not the big brother model, I don't think there is a meter left in Ohio that is mechanical.

Smart meters are next. I actually had pushback on this subject in the past from people who should know better.

I'm in the industry, and the narrative surrounding this is 100% bullshit. The customers impacted all signed up for "Demand Response" program, which means THEY GOT PAID to allow the utility the right to cut their power use. It is actually a very healthy program for certain types of businesses, but doing it for residential customers is dumb purely because of the optics and how it is being reported. It is the customers' own fault for being morons and not understanding what they signed up for.

The utility cannot just "cut your power" without your approval, no matter what type of thermostat you use.

EDIT -- I should clarify, I meant that they can't cut your power via your thermostat. They of course can cut it via rolling blackouts. This is one of several reasons why a DR program is actually a good thing because partial power is sure as hell better than a total blackout. But of course it is never reported this way.