[ciaranm]

There's live stats for the UK's national grid. There's a couple of sites that show it, e.g. http://gridwatch.co.uk/

Really interesting to see.

Britain also has the interesting culture of tea drinking in the evenings - almost all using electric kettles. I believe the grid uses hydro stations to cover the load of this. Typically peaks during breaks and/or after popular TV shows in the evening.

[zigzigzag]

That used to be the case, yes. Since the arrival of many-channel TV and changed viewing habits (e.g. lots more internet use) the advert-break-effect has lessened considerably.