Pay for Power

* “Blackout Blues” (editorial, July 16) defines the problem very clearly. However, a much more beneficial approach to the solution of the immediate problem of brownouts on hot sunny afternoons is readily available. Simply pass legislation in Sacramento requiring transmission companies to pay consumers who generate their own electricity the going price for any electricity they provide to the grid.

In California, at least, this would provide sufficient incentive for both consumers and suppliers of rooftop solar electric generation systems to produce and install systems. They would almost immediately start reducing the peak demand and very soon eliminate the brownouts. It would not be long before the cost of solar electric would be low enough that it would become a major supplier of electrical energy.

RICHARD FOY

Redondo Beach