But now we have storage, distributed production, power meters, etc.
It's relatively easy to set up a grid in which several houses produce, storage and exchange energy with a simplified free market pricing system.
Alas, in most countries it's illegal because you aren't allowed to set up such a network. Energy is one of the big control levers the State has over people.
Again this was done in the 19th century. It is horribly inefficient. The only reason why it seems like a good idea today is because power companies are now rentieers instead of service provides.
How is it inefficient? You have production, storage and consumption right next to each other. You just miss the high voltage lines required to not lose a lot of energy that is produced hundreds of miles away and the transformers and switched that come with it. I would even say that it can be more efficient.
Back in the day having hundreds of nets that are not interconnectable and running everything on coal or gas made things hard to scale. But today interconnections can easily be done through a converter, you don't even have to match demand and production as you have storage and the more productors available, the cheaper and more stable the energy gets.
You also have individuals on the microgrid that actually care about the quality of the microgrid.
It's relatively easy to set up a grid in which several houses produce, storage and exchange energy with a simplified free market pricing system.
Alas, in most countries it's illegal because you aren't allowed to set up such a network. Energy is one of the big control levers the State has over people.