It would not be the national grid unless there was a fault or essential maintenance was being undertaken. Your electricity supplier can suspend service for non payment of bills. There are extenuating circumstances that would stop them doing so but the onus is on you to prove why you should not be cut off.
The national grid is not the one that sells you electricity. The only time the national grid will stop power flow is if it goes off line and this usually involves areas the size of cities. It is your local electrical utility that buys power from the grid and redistributes it to its electrical customers. Under certain circumstances the power can be shut off in the winter time and for that matter at any time of the year.
The best time to see the northern lights is on a cold night.
After dark
In winter months.
In the UK the grid capacity is about 60 GW which is about 1000 watts for every person, butit does not have to supply that much power all the time.
Yes, the next time the Northern Lights will have a peak of activity will be in the Winter of 2012, and early 2013
Because demand exceeded supply. The first power grid overloaded and failed. The next grid, interconnected to the others, felt the load surge from first grid dropping out and failed under the extra load now required from it. Load balancing on a national power grid is a tricky thing. It has to be planned implicitly and implimentation can take a long time. Implementation cost is also a factor in how long it takes to have a well balanced grid in place.
The grid of time.
It reduces the amount of time in the evening when it is dark. Most energy used for lighting is on dark winter evenings, so that energy is "saved" as the lights are not turned on.
There is no set time of year that they happen. They can happen at any time. It is better when they happen during the southern hemisphere's winter, as the nights are longer and darker then, so they are more spectacular.
Snowflake lights can be purchased during the winter season (around Christmas time) at local hardware stores, department stores but probably not specialty lighting stores. They are also popular for decorators when decorating events such as weddings.
Massachusetts state law prohibits utility companies, including National Grid, from shutting off electricity during the winter months (November 15 to March 15) for customers who are unable to pay their bills. This protection helps ensure that all residents have access to essential utilities during the coldest months of the year.