Sometimes taxpayers pay for it, sometimes utilities do it as a last ditch effort to reduce consumption because they’d lose less money than if they were forced to buy power from expensive generators, but it’s usually somewhere in between with a dose of pr lies.
The downside is that locals like dchomak could buy hundreds and sell them to me on the other side the country. I’ve been tempted to ask, but won’t because he and his neighbors would pay for it somehow.