It is illegal in California to disconnect a residential house from the grid.

It’s ca. They wouldn’t make it THAT easy to opt out of their insanity.

Source?

Lawyers argued that Title 24 required that residential buildings be interconnected with the grid [0] [1], but 2022 updates to the code seem to have clarified that standalone solar PV systems with storage are OK (though they should still be meet the same standards as grid-connected systems would) [2]

In any case the small number of people who can afford to do so and want to do so seem to be doing so [3]

[0] https://www.cailaw.org/media/files/IEL/Publications/2016/gri...

[1] https://klinedinstlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/how-tit...

[2] https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/build...

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/168mlxw/possiblelega...

Are there fixed costs to having a connection? As in can one have a connection to the grid as a backup pay negligible amounts every month since they don’t use it?

They added a new fixed fee to cover this exact situation. Even if you do not use any power you’d be billed that fixed fee every month.

Anyone living in CA want to check their bill? I think there's a fixed fee for grid connection similar to nat gas. Curious what this is

If you stop payments, do they turn off their service?

> It is illegal in California to disconnect a residential house from the grid.

Huh? Are you saying I'm forced into a contract with a private company with a monthly fee?

... what happens if I simply have no money, and get the service terminated due to lack of payment?

Yes