Germany's grid outages add up to about 12 minutes per year.
Good for them. Sadly as new and extreme weather patterns start to emerge more often their grid will be challenged more often, just like everyone else.
Grids can be very reliable.
Until they aren't. Fires, storms, floods, heatwaves are all increasing and with that increase comes increase pressure on the grid.
The idea of everyone being free of the grid and energy independent is, well, have you actually thought that through?
Yep. As I said, if achieved, it would be an era of unparalleled prosperity and security. Right now, it seems impossible because energy storage is still expensive. In terms of power production
with solar, for most latitudes solar provides all the energy needed right now. We don't need any other technology. As storage catches up to power generation, then the need for transmission and generation infrastructure will not be there.
Do you have any experience with not being grid connected?
3 months without grid power at my home. I powered my home with a small inverter gasoline generator that mostly kept the fridge going and provided lights and wind fans to be able to sleep at night. Not having power sucks, specially if the infrastructure is built under the assumption that there will always be power available.
Do you have any idea what it would take to replace the grid with billions of standalone systems?
Lots of batteries, lots of solar panels and a whole industry of installers and maintainers.
I've been off the grid for almost 30 years. I'm off the grid because hooking up would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. (That's one of the things that made my land affordable.) Most people just wouldn't want to be off the grid and have to run their own utility company. If I could switch over to grid power I would.
Having a cable that is always* on is a great thing, while the cost of home energy sources is high. As costs lower and the limits of storage and generation increase, energy independence will be ubiquitous. I don't think the technology is there yet, but it is the inevitable end result.