Hard Guarantees #6: Coping with the UK's TV Pickup Using Bitcoin to Level the Grid

In the UK, there’s a strange but predictable spike in electricity demand called the “TV pickup.”

It happens when millions of people turn on their kettles during commercial breaks of large TV events. Yes, it's the British preparing their tea at scale and in-sync.

It’s a real challenge for grid operators. Demand can spike by hundreds of megawatts in minutes. It’s a rare, culture-shaped stress test of national infrastructure. But the problem isn’t the people or the kettles. It’s that we design grids around unpredictable peaks, and then let excess capacity sit idle the rest of the year.

Which raises a question: What if you could profitably soak up that excess without compromising on flexibility?

Instead of designing around average energy demand that makes the system prone to shortfalls or overbuilding that wastes energy, Bitcoin miners allow an economically viable alternative. Power grid systems can be designed to provide more energy than everyone needs and use the excess to provide security to the Bitcoin protocol, which monetizes the excess energy.

When demand spikes (like during a UK TV pickup), miners can shut off in seconds and disappear from the grid, freeing up massive capacity instantly.

When demand is low, they mine Bitcoin. This gives you a guaranteed baseline demand and near instant load shedding.

Why this isn’t just theoretical

In Texas, this model is already in motion.

Bitcoin miners partner with grid operators to sell power back during peak times. Miners effectively act as emergency demand-response infrastructure. Texas’s energy market (ERCOT) allows this kind of flexibility.

The economics work because miners are:- Dispatchable (they can turn off fast)

• Location-agnostic (they can go where energy is cheap)
• Incentive-aligned (they get paid to not use energy when needed)

This doesn’t just stabilize the grid. It incentivizes overbuilding renewable and intermittent energy sources (solar, wind) because there’s a buyer of last resort.

Tradeoffs and Alternatives

Some argue the solution is more conservation:

Smarter appliances, time-of-use pricing, and demand smoothing through behavioral nudges.

These work, but they require mass behavior change, regulatory alignment, and cultural momentum. That’s hard to guarantee.

Bitcoin miners require none of that. It’s not the only tool, but it’s one that works now, and doesn’t ask the population to change how they live.

A New Kind of Infrastructure Hedge

Designing for energy stability in the 21st century means accepting that demand will spike (sometimes irrationally). Rather than cutting back, we need to build more and monetize the slack space in ways that don’t compromise reliability.

That’s what Bitcoin miners offer: A financial engine for absorbing risk, without sacrificing uptime. It’s not just about tea breaks in the UK. It’s about designing infrastructure with hard guarantees in mind.