Interesting that the utilities with fixed sunk costs are feeling a pinch from renewables. I suppose some of them will take the bailout path (companies keep pro

Interesting that the utilities with fixed sunk costs are feeling a pinch from renewables. I suppose some of them will take the bailout path (companies keep profits, taxpayers or ratepayers shoulder losses). Traditional utility economics guarantees a return on capital, and imposes ratesetting in return for geographic monopolies. The real story here is the upending of that model as carbon-based fuel loses its deathgrip over the grid. A consequence of this is less economy-of-scale advantage for vast generation plants. Small distributed generation is more attractive than it was a generation ago. But every market has its quirks. The Texas grid system doesn't have any way to export power to other markets. And West Texas is a windy place. So they find themselves with excess capacity sometimes. I wonder if any grid operators will respond to these price signals by developing smart grids: by realizing that their future lies in offering both electricity and good information about that electricity. Then they can send signals to local time-shiftable equipment (for example car charging, water heating, power storage, desalinization, even blockchain mining). In Norway the grid operators deliver near-real-time supply signals to customers using the same sort of radio signals that tell people the song that's playing on the radio station. Sure, the US is bigger. But if the don't try to do this, they'll never figure out how to do it. One negative consequence of this pinch: as it spreads the net metering deal that current solar-cell households enjoy will fade away.