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Comment by yummypaint | Hacker News Reader

Part of being a distribution monopoly is delivering power to everyone, not just places where it's profitable. People in rural areas are able to afford grid electricity because the disproportionate cost of delivering power to them is subsidized by people living in cities paying the same rates.

Rooftop solar being cheaper overall than a grid connection for some people isn't that surprising. There are lots of other costs and externalities associated with running a grid that don't need to be contemplated for off grid home solar.

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Rural electrification subsidies distort the cost of living in the middle of nowhere. This is the same problem as low-density suburban housing: the cost of their infrastructure far exceeds their taxes, so they're subsidised by urban core where infrastructure costs are low.

This is an even better argument against delivering power to everyone, all the time.

Electricity should be delivered to everyone, just like mail. It's not just a product, it's an essential public good.

In my country there is no obligation for power distributors to connect new customers to the grid if it is uneconomical. Those people are expected to sort their own off-grid installation. Stringing 5km+ of conductor for one customer makes no sense at all. In fact, many distributors are actively paying a small number of (willing) customers to install off-grid installations so their grid connection can be decommissioned as it saves everyone money.

Around here if you live in the middle of nowhere you’re on a septic tank system and not connected to a sewage system

It is unrealistic to expect the same amenities regardless of where you live.

A septic tank provides for safe and sanitary disposal of waste. The purpose of such sanitation is to prevent cholera outbreaks etc. That requirement is satisfied.

But it is not the same as being hooked up to a sewage system.

Nor are the houses always hooked up to a water main. And instead rely on wells.

The point is that they don’t have the same services, and it would incredibly expensive to provide them. The same for electricity.

They argument makes less sense now that rural people can install their own solar/wind power supply.

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