The price spikes are intended (and actually succeed in) incentivizing the building of power sources like solar that do not produce 24x7, but do produce during n

The price spikes are intended (and actually succeed in) incentivizing the building of power sources like solar that do not produce 24x7, but do produce during normal peak times (when it's sunny and hot). They make enough $$ during peak prices, that they are competitive (in fact as a % of total grid capacity are rising fast, already in double-digits). You could achieve something similar by using a flat rate, but subsidizing the solar some other way, perhaps with direct handout, and raising taxes to pay for that. In some ways, that would be more direct and easy to understand. However, this does at least have the advantage of most incentivizing the capacity which is available when it is most needed.