Power plants run regardless of whether the meter is running or not. The meter is the tool used to extract sales of the service. If I turn on every device in my house or I turn off every device in my house the power plant still runs.

They don't shut down based on the demand. They run the power plant anticipating that people will use the power and they hope that the customers will pay enough money so that the operation can continue, maintenance, fuel and alternate power generation can resume or stop for maintenance.

It is possible that the operation can provide a generic fee based on the number of service subscribers that is profitable without being expense based on kilowatt use but the same innumerate politicians who demand Fiat for projects will accuse the regulated utility of not being fair to those who use less and being too cheap for those using more.

Which superficially makes sense but the truth is that the infrastructure is built out for the large customers and the small customers benefit from that infrastructure by being proximity oriented to the large customers.

People use power because they need it. To others it may look like waste but the needs are based on what the people want. Let's say a furniture showroom on the side of the highway. Only a skeleton crew is on site and no customers. Every light is on that can be lit. Why?

The displays have to be assembled and dismantled. The place needs to be cleaned. Retail stores require this in order to not disrupt the day sales operations. This principle of energy use is not arbitrary but necessary for smooth operation.

This same principal goes for power plants and manufacturing. A shut down is a big deal and it's only needed when the operation must upgrade and replace equipment that is constantly in demand. It's an expensive process and should only be done when they're is a safety concern or a planned operation.

There is no energy scarcity there is only monetary devaluation by entities that watch the price of things and they introduce fresh money that has never circulated in order to confiscate market goods and services without working for them. This is called "front-running price discovery". This activity creates inflation and scarcity of energy, goods and labor.

If there is no denominator in the supply of money then everything else purchased will be scarce because after an initial fresh injection of money all producers will need to find resources to replace the supply that was purchased by a new customer who did not work for the new money.

This creates a scarcity because all the work involved to make everything needs to happen in order to continue operations. With inflation factored in this does not seem to be a problem but information is arbitrary and it always increases and compounds. Prices go up and the rich customers continue the demand while the poor customers lose more resources and eventually leave the economy unless they are subsidized which leads to artificial low prices and poor quality of life, goods and services.