The utilities here charge me a connection fee, regardless of my meter. I get all of my energy from a roof top solar system but to stay on the grid I have to pa

The utilities here charge me a connection fee, regardless of my meter. I get all of my energy from a roof top solar system but to stay on the grid I have to pay a connection fee which in my mind covers transmission costs and infrastructure. Being that it's a utility I can see them charging for that stuff, some how, either by a fee or by arbitrage between wholesale and retail costs, that seems reasonable. It radically changes the value of solar though. If you can sell energy at wholesale prices what's the argument for restricting your ability to buy it at wholesale? Could you buy it from a different provider and just use the utility to transmit it?