If grid electricity was priced correctly, it would be nearly free per kWh but you'd have an absolutely massive annual fee for being connected to the grid in the

If grid electricity was priced correctly, it would be nearly free per kWh but you'd have an absolutely massive annual fee for being connected to the grid in the first place. The vast majority of the cost of delivering electricity via the grid is one-time Capex and ongoing maintenance. A shockingly tiny % is "marginal cost per kWh". What you're paying for, one way or another, is for "base load" that doesn't fluctuate with weather conditions. The coal/oil power plant might not be needed most of the time, but it still needs to exist because its power is needed occasionally, and it cost billions of dollars to build so they have to get that money back somehow. The problem with charging "correctly" structured rates (huge annual connection fee, tiny per kWh) is that it doesn't encourage any conservation, which will make consumers use ever-higher amounts of energy for exceedingly stupid stuff and thus drive even more Capex. Perhaps the "best" way to charge for grid connection is to look at the single highest peak demand for each user over the past year, and use that to prorate against sum of all costs needed to provide the base load for that peak moment. So you pay for the infrastructure you needed at any point that year, and it encourages people to reduce their reliance on high-capex base load.