Yep, in France we have a separate "subscription" fee that you have to pay no matter what, even if consumption is zero. It even has power levels and flexibility

Yep, in France we have a separate "subscription" fee that you have to pay no matter what, even if consumption is zero. It even has power levels and flexibility options that change the subscription prices, but also the electricity prices depending on the time of the day. It makes perfect sense and I don't see why/how it should be different. Asking to pay just for electricity generation is crazy because it is the "easier" step, creating, maintaining and equilibrating the network is by far the more complicated endeavor.