We had a power outage last night. It was in the mid-80's and I'm sure
that most of us had our AC units just sitting there waiting to spin up
as soon as the power came back on - I know I did.

So how is that initial power requirement handled by the power
company?

Even in a relatively small outage like we had, the initial demand as
everybody's AC units, cable boxes, lights, pool filters, fans, fridges
& freezers, etc. all come on at the exact same moment must be huge.

How does the power company soften the impact on their equipment?