Technological suggestion

[Mortblanc]

People are not going to drop dead because the electric goes off.

They might be uncomfortable, whine, cry and swear at Borris but it will only be in the case of rare medical needs that people will drop dead and the population collapse when the power goes out and that is only in the case of a sudden and total collapse of the total grid, which now consists of a good deal of wind and solar power contributions.

There will now always be some amount of power available for transmission.

More likely is the sudden SHORTAGE of power. People will be rationed power for certain hours daily. This is already the normal system in much of the world where power generation is limited.

You even had power rationing in the UK some years back I recall, and here in the States we see power rationing during high usage periods or when generation is limited.

No one drops dead when they flip the switch and there is no power.

What will happen is that people will grow accustomed to the limited resource and plan around it. They will charge batteries when they do have power, turn to small scale solar, hi-jack the solar panels on their own roofs that used to feed the grid for their immediate use and turn to alternate lighting sources.

Just like they did in the rural areas back before the war. Most of your country and mine were not totally electrified until after WW2. Gas and electric mains were city things. Yep I am old enough to remember visiting people in the rural areas that had no power, not because they failed to feed the meter, but because there was no grid access.

People will be making lamps from jelly jars and strips of rag, and candles from bits of the children's crayons, but after the whining dies down people get resourceful, pat themselves on the back for reinventing the candle, and carry on with limited lighting and improvised cooking.

Now one would actually expect a lot of houses and flat clusters burning down due to foolish use of those paraffin and candle lamps, not to mention the smell of rancid bacon fat burning to light some ones domain.

Even us preppers are on "limited duration emergency backup" and would find the situation "disruptive".