Yep that's pretty much what I think it should be used for as well, I don't think it will ever get to the stage of drop-in replacement and I don't think it should be.

I think things work that way in my animation world, though some buildings produce more than they use, and tis is redistributed to buildings that are using more than they produce, but I have exactly no idea how they do that, perhaps someone can figure it out practically so that kind of network can become a reality XD