Local electric company accountability

[LI0NSFAN]

I should charge them a "don't whip your ass fee" as they are sneaking around my property to read the meter. We had wireless meters installed to keep them off my property but the meter reader can't seem to understand he doesn't need to walk all over my property any more. Not saying he is up to no good but I still can't come up with a good reason for him to be walking around my property, especially since my meters are already being read wirelessly.
I recently built a garage and went through hell getting the electricity installed. Wanted underground utilities, was told by KUB no. After I was finished with building the garage the same exact guy who said no before asked why I didn't get underground utilities. I got pissed and told him I wanted underground utilities but he said "no" before. Because I was pissed he offered to install underground utilities for free but I had to put a service pole right in the middle of our driveway, I laughed and told him "NO".
You have to pay for your inspection before they will approve a meter. After the electrical was installed the state electrical inspector said I needed at least four special little stand off brackets for the conduit coming down the service pole to my garage. I have never seen another residential pole with these despite the inspector saying it has been the law for a very, very long time. The electrician had never heard of them being used in a residential application but the state inspector said I MUST have them or he will never approve me for a meter. When I asked where to get them he handed me a sheet with installation instructions as well as where I MUST buy them. There is only one business in town that sells the inspector approved brackets and that business is the only business with brackets approved for use. And because they are required those $10 brackets actually cost me over $70 each.
As far as solar goes TVA and KUB have an agreement unlike anywhere else in the United States. Everywhere else in the United States you use YOUR power first then it pulls power from the grid. In TVA controlled areas you pay for the solar energy YOU generate because the energy YOU generate is dumped onto the grid ahead of your meter. You pay the same rate for YOUR solar as you do for electricity from KUB/TVA. KUB puts a meter on your solar equipment to measure how much energy you produce for the grid. Then they will reimburse you for the power you put on the grid but ONLY if funding is available. BTW, funding has not been available since the program's inception because some local companies put up some huge solar farms to reduce their electricity bills. By doing that those companies have taken all the funding away from residential customers who, like me, could use solar to offset their bill. 6-8 years ago I looked into installing a solar system and did not because the funding wasn't available then, just like recently. When I tried again last year and it was still the same way.
The ONLY way YOU can benefit from the energy produced by YOUR solar setup is if you go 100% off grid. You are not allowed to do a grid tie system where YOUR energy is used first in KUB controlled areas. You will not see a single dime worth of benefit from the solar YOU paid to have installed if you are still connected to the grid in any way. That is why no one wants to go solar in the area or at least that is why I would not install solar. It would cost me ~$45,000 to install a large enough system to put my bill at zero but because I will not get reimbursed there is no way I can recoup my installation costs. And when I told them I would not shell out $45K to install solar that would not benefit me they said "what about the environment?". So they are also trying to guilt people into paying them to install solar even though it will probably never benefit them. I would install solar immediately if they let me use my power first but you cannot, YOUR power goes into the grid first and you pay full price for YOUR solar. This is unlike anywhere else in the nation and the contract between KUB and TVA to do this still has close to 20 years before the contract expires. So even if the contract did change I would not have enough of my life left to break even because it will take 20+ years to break even according to their estimates. I even asked what would happen if I decided to use my solar first and was told I would get into serious trouble if I did. Not sure what sort of trouble, criminal or civil, but saving the environment is now no more important to me than it is to KUB.
Imagine the benefit if KUB offered to install a single solar panel on a residential roof for free and allowed customers to use a portion of that energy first. That would help out KUB because it would free up some energy production capabilities. Not only that but it would also generate, over the lifetime of the panel, profits well above the initial cost of installation. A solar panel lasts about 30 years and would not cost more than $1,000 to buy and install. I bet it would break even within a year or two then it would be 100% profit after that. Seems like a no brainer for KUB but they will never do it.
If they let me use MY solar first I would install a HUGE solar system tomorrow but because they have no idea if funding will be available year to year I would be stupid to throw away all that money for the benefit of KUB. Seriously, why can't they do like every other state in the country. Profits are the reason why, if people start using the power they, themselves, generate KUB could not charge people for it. They act like all energy being produced belongs to them even though the equipment used does not. It really is sad that they have an opportunity to help out people in the community but are more worried about profits than their customers or the environment.

Can you have a second electrical panel installed to run certian things on solar. We changed all lighting to Led and buy as energy efficient as we can every time. We did an energy audit and we found that outside of fridge and AC we use very little energy. We could have a system put in that would break even in 5 years. Would they even know if you did that? That way even in a power outage you would have general power.

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[E4 No More]

47 minutes ago, LI0NSFAN said:

Can you have a second electrical panel installed to run certian things on solar. We changed all lighting to Led and buy as energy efficient as we can every time. We did an energy audit and we found that outside of fridge and AC we use very little energy. We could have a system put in that would break even in 5 years. Would they even know if you did that? That way even in a power outage you would have general power.

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No kidding...why does he have to hook into their grid with his property?

[analog_kidd]

My dad installed a transfer switch next to his breaker panel to be used with a generator. He picked a few circuits (refrigerator, lights, etc.) and connected them to the switch. If the electric goes out, he fires up the generator, and transfers those couple circuits over to it as a source. When the power comes back, he switches it back to the utility source.

You could just as easily use solar panels as the source, and transfer back to the utilities if you ever needed to.

[Sam1]

23 hours ago, Dolomite_supafly said:

As far as solar goes TVA and KUB have an agreement unlike anywhere else in the United States. Everywhere else in the United States you use YOUR power first then it pulls power from the grid. In TVA controlled areas you pay for the solar energy YOU generate because the energy YOU generate is dumped onto the grid ahead of your meter.

That's not different than anywhere else in the country, it's SOP.  Actually, if you found a company that would allow you to do otherwise, it would be surprising.

To answer the others' questions on tapping the existing breaker box for a secondary power source; that won't pass inspection.  You'd have to do that under the radar.  why?  because the electric companies want you dependent on them, can't be having too many people doing their own thing and reducing that dependency.  I ran this gambit when moving into this house in '13.  Had all the estimates, all the plans, everything... for a 4.8kw array and then seen it would take 20 years just to break even, even with the 30% rebate and would be on the brink of the lifespan of the panels after that time.

Edited May 4, 2017 by Sam1