The proto-electric companies offering deals

[The Poet]

Not exactly sure what you mean here, but my town has its "own" electric company, in that it buys power from a big utility at a discount, and passes a fair portion of that discount onto the citizens of this burgh. The borough has its own maintenance department for local repairs - blown transformers, etc. - and disruptions are normally over in a reasonable length of time. They have on occasion shut down sections of the town for upgrade repairs, but there is plenty of warning for these scheduled blackouts, and they are rare. In my 30+ years here, I can recall two.

As for "sleazy" . . . well, screw the Big Dogs.