Cut The Wire

OMXUS Research Series — this paper of 33

The kitchen-table version of (Applebee & Combe, 2026, "The Power Mesh")

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You pay for electricity every month. You've always paid for electricity every month. Your parents paid for electricity every month. So did theirs.

You've never asked why.

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The wire

There is a wire that runs from a power station to your house. It might be 50 kilometres long. It was expensive to install. It's expensive to maintain. Every month, a company reads the meter on your wall and sends you a bill.

The power station burns coal, or gas, or splits atoms. The electricity travels through the wire, losing 5-8% along the way. It arrives at your house. You use it. You pay $1,500-2,000 a year for the privilege.

The company that owns the wire didn't build the power station. The company that built the power station didn't mine the coal. Nobody in this chain works for you. They all work for shareholders. You are the product being metered.

Here's the question: what if there was no wire?

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The sun hits your roof for free

A 400-watt solar panel costs $100. At mass production, not retail — $100. It sits on your roof and makes about 1.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity every day. For free. From the sun. Which sends no invoice.

One panel isn't enough to power a house. You need about 10 for full independence. Most new Australian houses already have 6-10 kilowatt systems installed — that's 15-25 panels. The sun hits them every day. The electricity is generated. And then...

It goes into the grid. Through the wire. The power company buys it from you for 5 cents per kilowatt-hour and sells it back to you for 30 cents. You generate the power. They take the margin. Because they own the wire.

What if you didn't need the wire?

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The node

One box. On the side of your house or in your garage. Ab