A thought module proposed by Roberto Verzola, via email:

“Please look more closely at net metering and the energy exchanges that happen under it. It seems to be similar to the kind of (economic calculation) mechanism you are looking for, as follows:

– It measures the individual contribution of a solar owner’s surplus (the reversal in the electric meter) to the grid supply, and which entitles the solar owner to credit equivalent to his contribution. You can look at this contribution as a contribution to the common supply of electricity, although it just so happens that this contribution is privately appropriated by the utility at this time.

But one can imagine the surplus contributions of many solar owners as something similar to code, information, etc. contributed to a common pool. From this perspective, the grid is a network that is now poised to turn into a commons where the accounting mechanism (my term, equivalent to your ‘economic calculation’, I believe) has already been found–net metering. I’m not sure yet that this is so, but it think it deserves a second look.”