[balabaster]

This is the dumbest mandate I have ever heard of. Part of the installation of such power systems should have a mandate that in order for an off-grid power system to be connected to your box, your breaker to the grid must be off before you can enable your off-grid system. Why isn't there a mandate for this?

It seems like the mandate was written entirely to protect the power company's profits hiding behind a thin veil of trying to protect their technicians.

If the electrical utilities cared at all about the customer they'd mandate something that allows customers to do what they want, safely.

What good is charging batteries during the power outage when you can't use them during a power outage? You can't have power connected during the power outage for fear of "electrocuting the technicians" - so what's the point in spending all this money on solar panels if the only time you can use them is while the grid is up... and you have cheap (comparatively) grid fed electricity? What's the purpose in having batteries if not to use them when the grid is down?

[brudgers]

In the US, rural electrification was largely complete 75 years ago. Urban electrification infrastructure dates back even longer. In all that time, intensity of use has increased.

There's a lot of bailing wire and duct tape...or overhead power lines and wood poles if you prefer...in the grid. It's grown based on small decisions over many years. People won't put up with six years of service interruptions while big chunks are rebuilt and debugged...nor will they be happy to underwrite the cost of doing so.

[innguest]

It's BS as you rightfully detected but that doesn't stop the State cheerleaders above from giving us 1001 reasons why this is bad and we must protect the lives of electrical workers, firefighters, and even the lofty goal of protecting the hand-wavy "public commons" itself!

Yeah, it's not the power company's fault for endangering the lives of their workers, it's our fault, you and I regular Joes, for daring to want electricity in case the power company can't supply us with any. How dare you?

[CamperBob2]

This doesn't make any sense. There are almost certainly provisions in the law for backup generators to be connected to the service panel with a transfer switch, either manual or automatic. The idea is that when the generator is powering the house, the powerline service is completely disconnected, and vice versa. This is standard stuff, part of every electrical code I've ever heard of.

If a state legislature doesn't allow backup power to be supplied to a home or business with an NEC-compliant transfer switch, there should be some kind of judicial recourse. I'd spend some quality time with an attorney before taking "No" for an answer.

[balabaster]

Agreed

[jacquesm]

Either your sarcasm tags are missing or you're just simply dead wrong.

I set up a fairly beefy solar/wind powered system in an off-grid configurations specifically not to have to deal with the red tape, installation and insurance requirements of being 'on grid' and I don't regret that but all of those requirements, inspections and gear made perfect sense from an electrical point of view and from a safety point of view.