It&#x27;s not that simple. A system that is not grid connected will need a lot more than just a battery to make it as reliable as a grid connection. Those &#x27;few short years&#x27; are more likely a couple of decades, in other words well over the horizon for the people that are currently trying to squeeze the most profit from those utilities.<p>Residential battery storage is just one component is a complex chain that needs to be deployed for every house that could be off the grid, it actually side-steps the need for net metering (because you can simply store your own excess). For those use cases the grid functions exactly like a battery, only one with near infinite capacity.<p>It also serves as a back-up, in case of system failure, extended lack of power from whatever sources you&#x27;ve got and so on. And that function is <i>far</i> harder to engineer around than the mere energy storage and recovery one.