Excellent excellent post. I worked in Western Power (Western Australia's distribution power utility) for a short while. The thing with the smelting plants is

Excellent excellent post. I worked in Western Power (Western Australia's distribution power utility) for a short while. The thing with the smelting plants is that they are usually located far away from population centres, and close to a port (or they have their own port!). This doesn't help with the situation, as they are usually quite a long way from the generation plant. But it usually means they have a very substantial connection to the grid. I'd love to go back there and learn more about this stuff. Power engineering is fascinating.