[beambot]

Good point about utilities. Plus, with decentralized (solar) power generation, utility companies are really starting to show some cracks too. As soon as distributed energy storage is economically viable, they're going to need to adapt even further.

[afarrell]

What does energy generation have to do with the monopoly power of the folks who own the wires, buy from the bulk electricity market, and sell to consumers?

[beambot]

When customers can go 100% off-grid using rooftop solar and in-home storage, it bypasses and obviates the utility's monopoly on bulk generation and transport.

This actually causes a lot of issues, since the long-term fixed costs for the utility get spread across fewer paying customers. You're starting to see this problem in locales with heavy solar penetration (eg. Hawaii).