One of the major ingredients in any kind of endeavor is load-management. A college student, for example, must have special permission from the dean to take more than a certain number of courses per semester. Past wisdom has taught that students experience inevitable time-management problems and personal stress when they overload a schedule.

In the realm of everyday consumption of energy, most cities now have load-management regulators which are placed on homes. City energy departments give a discount to customers who employ such devices. During peak load periods the load-management device will not allow your air conditioner or hot water heater to kick on. This enables the whole city system to avoid going to pieces when the desires and urges of all its customers might overload that system …