If you look at, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago, we had a system where you had primarily local utilities that were serving local loads with local generation. (scientificamerican.com)
The technical advantage is that local generation eliminates the enormous losses of wasted heat and long transmission that consume more than half the energy used in electricity generation by fossil fuels or nuclear. (politics.co.uk)
But even very large investments can be modest compared with the cost of having to use expensive local generation rather than cheaper renewables from remote locations. (scientificamerican.com)