Hard to say; it could be time control or ripple control of relays at substations, which would explain neighbourhoods turning on/off at the same time. It's still

Hard to say; it could be time control or ripple control of relays at substations, which would explain neighbourhoods turning on/off at the same time. It's still not fully centralised, and the more "decentralised" (I cringe when I write that word these days) it gets, the cheaper it gets to provide an always-on supply to the lamp post.