Larger consumers usually do pay demand charges. In the UK, they had some method to charge based on a retrospective look of when the grid had the largest demand

Larger consumers usually do pay demand charges. In the UK, they had some method to charge based on a retrospective look of when the grid had the largest demand and your contribution to it, so some firms were set up to help you predict this and reduce your usage at those points. > The UK’s demand charge price is based on its ‘Triad’ system. ‘Triads’ are three, half-hour periods in the UK winter when energy demand is at its highest. > The Triad dates must be at least ten days apart. They typically fall on weekdays, between 4 pm-7 pm, November to February and during periods of cold weather. The National Grid often has to fire up expensive coal and gas-powered stations to meet industrial and domestic demand during these windows. https://www.greenoptimistic.com/how-to-reduce-commercial-electricity-demand-charges-20200910/?amp https://www.greenoptimistic.com/how-to-reduce-commercial-ele... This all makes sense for larger users but the costs of smartmetering on light users has been a bit of a farce in Ontario Canada where the costs were real and the load shifting was not.