We are lurching towards a post-electric world, where national grids will gradually become unaffordable, and thus will be broken down into smaller and smaller local grids.
But solar makes it cheaper. Poor African communities have been electrifying at a fantastic rate so his idea that poor will loose power doesn’t seem valid.
That Spain had a failure doesn’t mean it’s the end of electricity just like 3 mile Island wasn’t the end of electricity. Not even Chernobyl was the end of electricity.
The systems will be adjusted for the failure so it doesn’t happen again.
Electricity at the personal level can be reduced tremendously, it is the big industrial systems that are producing things that are affected and so that loss of output is where the pain point would be.
I’ve gone whole years on a single 150 watt panel living rurally and still had all the entertainment that can come from a Laptop and cell phone. Ran basic devices from the battery . Not too big a deal for quality of life.