Utility companies and rooftop solar power have had a fraught relationship from the very beginning. Ever since the days of Thomas Edison, utilities have gotten their electricity from large generating stations and distributed it to customers through a system of sub-stations, poles, and wires. The electricity was supposed to flow in one direction only. There’s another wrinkle to consider as well.

Early on, people realized that it was wasteful and inefficient to have multiple utilities in competition with each other, each with its own poles, wires, and substations. And while that is undoubtedly true, it came to represent a certain mindset among folks in the utility business, one which cast them as the masters of their world of electrons with no outside interference allowed.

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