On the Street Where You Live
Issue #23: The low-voltage network running down your street is way more interesting than you think. And so is the money being spent on it.
American regulators are discovering that the fastest-growing part of the electricity bill — distribution spending — is approved in a black box. Australia built a better machine for scrutinising that spend, but its gaze stops well above the street, and the street is exactly where the transition is landing: century-old low-voltage networks built to push power one way now carry solar exports, EV charging, batteries and heat pumps in every direction at once. The quiet one-way street has become a multi-lane highway. Some local networks are coping just fine. Some are struggling. Depending on where you live, there is a rich public record that tells you exactly how yours is faring — down to the transformer on the corner, in fifteen-minute steps. And that record, properly published, could change who gets to decide what the fix is.
Jul 7, 2026
