I imagine that part of the motivation here is that with on site generation and storage the grid becomes less and less viable to fund via usage fees. Without mu

I imagine that part of the motivation here is that with on site generation and storage the grid becomes less and less viable to fund via usage fees. Without much further storage improvements, an ordinary single family home could run almost entirely on self generated power -- but then when there is sustained poor weather they'd all hit the grid at once. In that future the grid needs loads of capacity which are seldom used. It's hard to pay for that with usage... and logically that potential demand cost should be a connection fee. The income based part probably arises because when you price out the connection fee you find that it would be painfully expensive for some. I don't think having the utility further trying to invade your privacy is the right way to deal with this, but I guess it's a lot easier to impose a tax via an unaccountable body than via other means.