wifeisafurd said:
Going a different direction. In SoCal, the trend among people with means is to cut the cord from SCE. It has nothing to do with cuts in service due to fires - that is a NorCal thing. It is that SCE costs a lot for connections for a new house and also causes significant construction delays which in large houses means a lot of additional costs. So owners go solar with back-up batteries and have found this reliable and cost-effective. About half the major remodels/new houses in the area we live in OC have gone the way. With black-outs in NorCal, wondering why people are not going that way (or maybe they are)? My guess is that in the long run as technology improves and becomes cheaper, power companies in warm areas will go under or be expensive alternatives just for the poor. Might add the environment does a lot better with this approach.
As the country trends to daytime renewables, the price for darktime energy (those 4-9 peak time commercials) will skyrocket. Battery backup technology is a generation (developmental) away from being effective for middle class households. Right now solar installation companies are warranteeing solar panels for 25 years and batteries for no more than ten years. Solar power battery disclosures indicate a 10% annual reduction in storage capacity. Basically after five years you may be at half original storage and after ten years you have a dead battery. When batteries have the same long term performance expectations as solar panels, they may allow you to go off grid completely.
However the infrastructure will have to remain in place for at least a generation and it's maintenance will have to be paid for by ALL. Most likely this will be by creation of special districts to own, operate and manage the electrical infrastructure. Just like your taxes pay for roads if you do not drive, schools if you don't have children, fire protection if you don't start fires, the maintenance of the electrical distribution grid will have to be paid by a tax assessment, not in utility rates, Take a look at your utility bill, subtract out the cost of the purchased utility (electrical), the remainder is the cost of maintenance of the utility system. Going off the grid means that someone else subsidizes your cost of street lights, traffic lights, drainage pumps, etc... within their utitilty bill. Sooner or later ratepayers are going to demand that the infrastructure costs for services that benefit the entire community, must be paid by everyone in the community.
Whither the future? Do we continue to allow the off-the-grid types to benefit from services they don't reimburse?
Maybe we designate properties as
do not assist; no fire or police, medical, or emergency response; let them burn, slide, flood, to protect adjacent areas that want protection. Afterwards the local government can neutralize the property as a public nuisance without reimbursement to the property owners. The Grump's proposal for infrastructure was 'privatize'; not working now, little hope for the future. Radical changes needed.