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The utilities are some of the most arrogant people when it comes to property;you pay taxes on the land but they can destroy any plantings or anything that impedes access.I used to hate the idea of strangers having keys to my basement door for meter checking in the city. Up until the 1990s we read our meter on the farm and mailed in the postcard and once a year the co-op checked the meter to verify it hadn't been tampered with and the reading was correct as sent in. Then we became a "rurban" utility with a manager with a big degree and experience in the power industry;who didn't trust anyone but their own employees to write down the same numbers we had for 30 years;except the readers were bad-tempered jerks who demanded farm gates be left unlocked,watchdogs tied and claimed they would "own this place if I fall,slip,or get bit or chased by any animal".Farms have animals and the meters were often installed on poles in the barnyard;moving the meter is now a major expense .

I believe one of the greatest benefits of energy self-sufficiency would be curtailment of the utility monster,which is one of the reasons utilities fight homeowner power.

I believe one of the greatest benefits of energy self-sufficiency would be curtailment of the utility monster,which is one of the reasons utilities fight homeowner power.

The reason utilities fight homeowner power is because of the way the laws permitting it were written.

Those laws were written so that the utilities take all of the financial risk and burden.

Just because some homeowner sets up his own wind turbine and “goes off the grid” the utility doesn’t get to cut service to him.

The utility still has to maintain service to that customer even though they are not receiving any substantial income from him.

Also any excess power that the customer generates the utility is required to purchase from the customer at a premium.

Then there is the issue of power quality. These off the grid power producers have a bad reputation with putting low quality power on the grid which can cause havoc with the equipment of other customers.

The utilities have just cause to oppose independent power producers. The deck is stacked against them.

Utility workers once picked my legally parked car up (with a forklift, I imagine) and deposited it next to a fire hydrant so they could dig a hole.

After they were done, they left my car next to the hydrant.

Along comes a cop, and I get a ticket.

A neighbor witnessed it, and told me what happened.

I just paid the ticket and—for that and other annoyances from living in a city—resolved to move away, which I did two years later.

I believe one of the greatest benefits of energy self-sufficiency would be curtailment of the utility monster,which is one of the reasons utilities fight homeowner power.

I believe it's the only reason they fight homeowner power. This is also the reason why you almost never see positive stories about home solar and wind power and always see pie-in-the-sky stuff about huge windmill farms and gigantic space-based solar arrays.

My dog got the meter reader. That’s what you get rummaging around the bushed unannounced. While he’s standing there stunned he’s yelling “what should I do, what should I do”. I said “suck it up and get back to work”. The bite didn’t even break the skin and the big sissy got out of work for the rest of the day.