Replies

"The electric utility that serves your area is duty bound to maintain power lines and power supply to your home, no matter how much you use or don’t use."

That's good information for many. There are no power lines near me, though. A neighbor who was much closer to the nearest lines said that the cost would be about $28,000 to get a line to his place for a drop. Then a private electrician would have needed to charge a few hundred for installing a basic power drop at his location (pole, cable, connections, meter, etc.), if the line were mounted on poles.

But line-mounted poles would be dangerous here because of the 100mph-plus winter wind gusts each year (somewhat like jets of wind through narrow paths over certain terrain features). Underground lines and a ground mounted transformer would be more expensive, although they're really nice instead of high mounted lines.

But me? It would cost much more than that and wouldn't make sense. After the years of study and follow-up work, it's all good here. With only a dozen or so houses within about 200 square miles, maintenance would be a heavy net cost for the power company. Too far from other services because of county and state regulations for any hope of more density here later on. And the highways closed during winter... I don't want to be a burden on the power company or be without power at times.

"Would it be fair for the utility to charge a “base rate” fee to cover the cost of the above ?"

That would be fair for customers with power drops to their private properties from their local electric companies, in my opinion. Besides, it's there, if they need it. Don't the companies already charge such a rate for customers not using electricity during a service period? I remember a natural gas company doing that (house and business, long ago).