True, to some degree. But the grid is the only part of the utility industry that is not being deregulated. You can’t set up a system where competing grids offer effective competition among one another. There is only one set of electric lines. As a result, those lines are typically owned by the government directly, or more likely, by a regulated utility. Either way, the cost of upkeep and of improvement gets passed onto the public. So it’s just a question of whether it should be included in the electric rate structure, or in the tax bill.
I think the main reason the government is picking up a large part of the tab is that it’s the government that is pressing these companies to modernize the grid. The government realizes that in today’s system, a single weak link can shut down power plants over large sectors of the nation. Therefore, if a utility in one state doesn’t want to upgrade, and the local government doesn’t want to require an upgrade, then the entire nation is affected.
“... cost of upkeep and of improvement gets passed onto the public.”
Which is no different than any other product.
I didn’t realize the government owned any of the power lines.
I realize compartmentalization of failures has proven to be a problem in the last decade or so. I still think the individual power companies should be taking measures themselves to prevent a cascade failure. I just don’t see how the government adds value here.
Then again, the whole idea of a grid seems like a weak point to me. True, it allows for generation in one place to support use in another, but it requires long transmission lines which are expensive and have significant losses. How hard would it be for terrorists to engineer the kinds of failures that have cascaded through large portions of the US and Canada ? I’d love to see small but deep geothermal made economical, with thousands of 100MW plants serving 100,000 homes each. If going to 30,000 feet depth were not so expensive, geothermal would work anywhere in the lower 48 states.