but what if you have no bill, no connection, purely off grid with like backup being a generator?
If you have no hookup, you pay nothing to the utility...so far.
I think the "noodling" in California, mentioned above, is to tie a basic monthly fee to customer income. It's been suggested a couple of times, but the pushback was so severe, they had to back off...somewhat. The basic, fixed fee for most customers was raised to $24. Low-income households will pay $6 or $12. This will go state-wide by the end of the first quarter of 2026. BTW, for the approved fee structure, "high income" is considered to be above $62.2k per year. Last time i checked, you couldn't live in much of CA, if your income was only that much. "Low income is anything below $49.7k. This fee is fixed. No dependency on the amount of energy used.
This was a "compromise" from what the POCOs wanted. It was suggested a couple of years ago, that the fee be a much wider index. Households making less than $69,000 a year would pay $20 to $34 a month, while those earning $69,000 to $180,000 would be charged $51 to $73. The charge would be $85 to $128 (again,
PER MONTH) on customers with incomes over $180,000. This was a fixed fee, regardless of consumption.
I live in the 'burbs, and have 11.4kW of PV and batteries. Except under extreme circumstances, I break even with SCE over the course of a year. In the scenario that SCE
wanted, I'd be paying $1.5k per year, to simply be hooked up to the grid, and laws make it exceptionally difficult to legally disconnect from the local utility.
The CaPUC and utilities will undoubtedly continue to try repeatedly to get the higher fee schedule implemented, until eventually they'll be able to push it through. I suspect, with higher fees, and lower income limits.
