Its an inefficient use of capital.

Whose capital?

The people buying the batteries and the government's capital. It only benefits the private util companies.

The better option is for the government/utility company to build out the required storage for a fraction of the cost.

	▲	coryrc 28 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		And when the power lines fall down in rural areas, how will people heat and power their homes? I guess they could buy some batteries, but then they'd sit idle most of the time. Maybe they could find some other profitable use and share the capital cost?
	▲	JumpCrisscross an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> better option is for the government/utility company to build out the required storage for a fraction of the cost Ex ante, sure. Right now, the existing batteries are a sunk cost the utility didn’t have to pay capital costs for. The right answer is to do both.