[10u152]

I don’t know where you live, but I can speak to how it works in Australia.

Your energy bill has a fixed daily rate to be connected to the grid. That pays for poles and wires, maintenance etc. To oversimplify a bit there’s also your cost per kWh to buy energy and to sell it. Someone using their own PV system during the day and buying from the grid at night isn’t “free riding” like you think. The connection is paid for by the fixed connection fee.

[opo]

I guess it all depends on the prices the utilities have to pay to buy the power and whether they are forced to buy the power if they don't need it. If the price is higher than the rate the utility would pay for utility scale solar, than I think you have to admit the owner of the solar panels is getting at least a small subsidy - likely paid for by other rate payers who are unable to put up solar. If the price paid is basically the same, then there should be no complaints from the other rate payers.