Quick Take: When I talk at industry conferences and private events, I often remind utility leaders that they now have new allies. Climate groups that previously saw utilities as carbon-spewing monopolists now understand the essential role they play in integrating renewables. As a result, organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund often speak out in favor of regulatory changes that give utilities a fair return for modernizing and maintaining the grid.
Likewise, advocates for low-income families used to reflexively oppose almost anything a utility proposed. Today, they often testify in favor of changes to the net metering laws that force low-income families to subsidize affluent homeowners and solar leasing companies.
Last week we added another important name to the list of prominent people who recognize the important role of utilities. TIME’s senior national correspondent Michael Grunwald authored an opinion piece called “The Case for Staying Connected.” He argues that we don’t need to ditch the grid, we need to fix the utility business model. And he admits he was wrong at first. – By Jesse Berst
The solar-rooftop revolution has inspired a lot of talk about grid divorce. As solar costs have fallen, more than half a million Americans have added rooftop solar in the past five years. Grunwald himself once saw the trend as a story of electricity independence — freeing yourself from the utility’s wires.
“Well, as the politicians say, I’d like to revise and extend my remarks,” Grunwald writes. “I still think rooftop solar is an incredibly disruptive technology and a serious threat to antiquated utilities. But the solar revolution is not the telecommunications revolution, and I doubt it will usher in a new era of grid defection and electricity independence. Nor should it.”
Why disconnect from the grid, he argues, when you can get paid for providing it with power. It’s in all our interests to figure out a utility business model that works.
Most people will still need the grid, even in the solar age. For one thing, not every residence has enough sun or enough roof space for solar. For another, most places that go solar will still need extra power. Yes, batteries are getting cheaper, but not as cheap as connecting to the grid, which Grunwald calls “an awesome form of power storage.”
“We don’t need to fire our utilities. We need to fix the utility business,” he argues. However, “that’s going to require an entirely new way of regulating utilities so they get paid for the services they provide rather than the power they sell us.”
Jesse Berst is the founder and Chief Analyst of SGN and Chairman of the Smart Cities Council, an industry coalition.
