Snark aside, there are examples of community-scale energy infrastructure below grid-scale: see "district heating" and "co-gen plants". Sand battery people have been experimenting with neighborhood-scale infrastructure (though industrial heat uses is a better return on that tech right now)

I've also seen flywheels used locally.

It just makes much more sense to have a big battery where the local substation is, than for everyone to install megawatts of battery individually.