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I'm just curious: what happens if a home owner installs a bunch of solar panels and batteries, declares the property "off grid" (for electricity), then simply s

I'm just curious: what happens if a home owner installs a bunch of solar panels and batteries, declares the property "off grid" (for electricity), then simply stops paying the local utility. I'm sure the local utility will stop service, which is what the home owner wants by going "off grid". But does it go beyond that? Will the local utility put a lien on the house? Will the local utility send any unpaid "fees" to collection? Does the local municipality condemn the property (or something similar)? Are there potential criminal charges?

coffeebeqn 4y ago
Paying for what? You pay for the kWh you use and the transfer of said energy. If you don’t use any energy or disconnect your service I don’t see why would that be a problem
- jedberg 4y ago
  Electricity grids have two parts -- the infrastructure that moves the electricity and the actual power. Before home generation, everyone needed both. The cost of the infrastructure was amortized over all of the customers. As it turned out, rich people used more power, so by having a single charge just based on usage but that covered the cost of both usage and the grid, rich people subsidized poor people. But the home solar came along, and the rich people started getting it. So now the power companies have a problem. They still have to maintain all of that grid infrastructure, whether you're connected to it or not, and they need rich people to subsidize it. The could have simply split the bill up and put the infrastructure on the property tax bill and then just charge people for their actual usage, but that would be complicated and would reveal how much they pay for each part. So instead they lobbied for laws that don't let you go off grid and force you to pay a minimum "connection fee" each month.
bluGill 4y ago
The duty can remove your right to live in the house. Utilities serve the whole city, if you don't connect you are violating the unwritten agreement to help the city exist. Even if you don't use power you need to pay your share of the power lines.

coffeebeqn 4y ago

Paying for what? You pay for the kWh you use and the transfer of said energy. If you don’t use any energy or disconnect your service I don’t see why would that be a problem

jedberg 4y ago
Electricity grids have two parts -- the infrastructure that moves the electricity and the actual power. Before home generation, everyone needed both. The cost of the infrastructure was amortized over all of the customers. As it turned out, rich people used more power, so by having a single charge just based on usage but that covered the cost of both usage and the grid, rich people subsidized poor people. But the home solar came along, and the rich people started getting it. So now the power companies have a problem. They still have to maintain all of that grid infrastructure, whether you're connected to it or not, and they need rich people to subsidize it. The could have simply split the bill up and put the infrastructure on the property tax bill and then just charge people for their actual usage, but that would be complicated and would reveal how much they pay for each part. So instead they lobbied for laws that don't let you go off grid and force you to pay a minimum "connection fee" each month.

bluGill 4y ago

The duty can remove your right to live in the house. Utilities serve the whole city, if you don't connect you are violating the unwritten agreement to help the city exist. Even if you don't use power you need to pay your share of the power lines.