Overcoming Threats to Electricity Reliability

Agree, Matt. Like fresh water, sanitation, police, and fire services, FDR believed reliable electricity to be a fundamental human right, and fought for access to it for all Americans.

The utility sector looks very much any other monopoly, but it seems we've forgotten retail electricity still is one. In the 1920s extending free reign to electricity monopolies led to exploitation and runaway prices, and in our rush to deregulate it I fear that will be another lesson of history we're doomed to repeat.

Hi Julian, that's a really interesting question. I think that it's still early to say anything conclusive, but the outset is not very bright. First, the problem being with the technology and whether it can scale economically. Second, whether citizens will be supportive of this since there are still be a lot of green-minded people who are quite anti-nuclear and few want one around their backyard. The last point is around energy loss. With a microgenerator, if you want to keep transmission loss low, you would want to install it close to where the load is. But since many people are going to be against that, you may have to place it further away and that may not make economic sense considering losses and other issues.

They may be somewhat useful in rural, less populated areas but the ROI can be of concern in that scenario.