I make this same point in my recent OpEd over at The Energy Collective, in an article titled Our Outdated Grid: An Intolerable Situation. http://theenergycollective.com/john-cooper/90021/intolerable-situation-outdated-paradigm My point is that the responsibility for energy provisioning is rapidly expanding beyond the utility to energy consumers – we each have an opportunity to become more energy self-sufficient. As a society, we should no longer tolerate repeated investments in a system that is poised to fail once again with the next storm that comes through. We would be wiser to promote energy self sufficiency as you describe, as an alternative to the grid, where utilities and the grid would one day become just one of many power alternatives.

John Cooper
President, NextWatt Solutions and Ecomergence