PG&E will shut off power for nearly 800,000 customers starting Wednesday

[Rajvik]

Point of order.

As I read it, Rob wanted to know why power wasn't all being generated locally without the need for the utility to shuffle the electrons around long distances. Which is what my answer was based on.

Windfarms, solar power arrays roofing over everything shaped by human hands, and other such utility scaled renewable shenanigans are an entirely different kind of electrical generation as the source and the user are not on top of each other, and so keep many of the grid related potential problems from the top of the thread despite being better for air quality and climactic issues.

because it is arguably more efficient to power large expanses with fewer plants than to have multiple plants overlapping coverage areas. Also, if you lose power from one direction due to a downed line, only one side of it is going to be hot, (ie charged) with multiple plants you have a higher likelyhood of both sides being hot.