following the money
In my neck of the woods the power companies actually want their customers using as little energy as possible. It only makes sense as a business model when you realize they make big profits selling power to California. The less power we use up here in the power belt the more they can sell to California.
I suspect it works in California in the reverse as well. Power companies there want to bring the demand down so they don't have to buy the more expensive power from neighboring states during peak hours.