Comment by jmpman
6 months ago
Target, the store, is known to not arrest shoplifters until they exceed the felony threshold, at which time they arrest and prosecute the shoplifters.
If a solar tie in fee is $100/month, and a “customer” is using their garden lights for 1 year, it’s only $1200 to find them and issue a fine (assuming the fine is simply equal to the avoided tie in fees). Probably not worth it for the power company. But… after 10 years, the tie in fees would be $12k - certainly profitable for an intern to do some Google image searches, if they can find just 100 violators, that’s $1.2M. In 10 years, it’s not going to be an intern doing this, it’s going to be some AI agent tasked with optimizing revenue generation, and their costs approach zero.
Failing to fulfil a contract, even assuming they can make such an argument, is not a crime.
I suspect I’ve accepted some terms or conditions which obligates me to pay them these fees if they find I ever generated my own power. Again, this is only possible because they have monopoly power, which is not adequately checked by the regulators, who are all likely captured to some degree. Thinking otherwise makes you naive.