Well, allegedy we can’t continue to keep our thermostats set at 72º. At the last rental residence I had, after smart metering was implemented, I received a notice, asking me if I would be willing to have my air conditioning shut of for 10 minutes out of every half hour, in order to ensure there wasn’t a high demand on the grid during the midday hours. It wasn’t yet mandatory, but if I committed to do so, it would cut out for ten minutes no matter what the inside temp was and that most “would only notice an increase of 2-4 degrees at most, barely noticable to the average user.”
Needless to say, I was displeased. This is unbelievable, and all made possible, through our “advanced” “smart metering.” What a joke! Wake up people, it’s coming...
Take air conditioning for instance. Air-to-air air conditioning is far more efficient, when it's cooler outside, than when it's hot. It makes great sense to run the A/C at night, when it's cool, to pre-cool the house. That way, it's not necessary to run the A/C quite so much during the heat of the day — when the A/C is inefficient, and electricity demand is peaking.
If you were prohibited from cooling your house, beyond some arbitrary point, then you would actually be forced to use a less efficient solution.