As is VERY well documented, the vast majority if the recent increases in power prices come not from production costs, but from over-investment in the distribution network. Specifically, even as electricity consumption plateaued and started to fall the industry was producing, year after year, projections of explosive exponential increases in demand - and building accordingly. They did so safe in the knowledge that government regulations had gifted them a guaranteed return on investment - in other words, the more they spent on the network, the more they would reap in profit. Guaranteed. So, they spent and spent ("like drunken sailors" I believe is the going term) and in doing so trapped the industry in this death spiral. Technological improvements drove demand down, forcing the companies to raise the per-kWh price to get their by-law-mandated return on investment, which in turn drove consumers to further reduce their use, which further drove prices up... the net result today is that even if centralised generators (coal, wind, solar, whatever) gave their power away for free, rooftop solar *still* would work out cheaper for the home user.
