Ah OK yeah that sounds good. In San Diego, you basically have to pay off any utility debt. Like paying for your slave debt to be a free man. You pay for the removal of installed hardware. Once there’s no SDGE hardware you can be free. But you also will get taxed for making and storing energy. SDGE made it their priority to go fuck with what solar panels people are allowed to install and for how long they are allowed to have them. They dictate how the inverters are supposed to work and what brand. So if you’re out of their utility you’ll have to come back to spec before they let you back in. You can’t just disconnect your system temporarily while you make repairs.

That’s a big difference here vs other areas, I’ve found. CPS Energy delivers a shitty product, but does their best to be reasonable with their customers (as long as you’re not a business). But, for example, scope an outlet on the same grid as Northstar Mall, but not at Northstar, during peak hours, and you’ll be lucky to find a reading above 100V.

If you call CPS Energy to complain that they broke some of your sensitive electronics from irregular power levels, they’ll often credit your account, and possibly set up some new equipment in your neighborhood, or even directly to your house. Source: I casually mentioned a mild nuisance to a CPS Energy operator while I had a permit pulled for a new breaker box install, and suddenly had more wires running to the pole in my back alley, a larger transformer, and more robust wires running to my house.

In many other places where grids are more robust by default, the general sentiment appears to be, “fuck you, we charge more because we offer more, and any issues are probably your own fault. Unless they’re not your fault, in which case, it’s a contractor’s fault.” When I lived in NJ, if I had power issues at the house where I was a tenant and called PSE&G, they’d say, “sorry, we don’t have any reports of issues in your area, try checking your breakers.” If I instead polled my neighbors and reported other affected addresses, or identified the issue by walking around the neighborhood, then PSE&G would be a lot more likely to say that they’ll send a truck out to look into the problem.

Anyway, the point is that we 210ers have the luxury of saying, “if I feel it’s unreasonable, then I’m gonna say something and they’re gonna be reasonable.” In other lands across the country, energy companies will gladly steamroll you before ever considering how reasonable their policies are.