It sounds to me like Salesforce was able to sell this utility on an a vision that the utility is unlikely to execute on.
Enron ring a bell? Granted that wasn't actual innovation but you can't deny them a certain amount of creativity in the bookkeeping department.
Some are, already, executing on some form of this strategy.
My residential electricity supplier sent around letters last year to every account offering what amounted to "water pipe insurance". Mind you, this was the "electric company", offering "water pipe insurance" but the deal was that for some "low monthly payment" amount (I forget now how much) they would cover the costs of fixing a leak between the locality water meter (installed street-side) and the pipe that entered through the wall into my basement to supply the house.
The letter was full of scary sounding things that /might/ happen, and of the huge sums of money a leak might cost to repair, should one occur (this figure I have some recollection of, their claim was that it was on the order of $3,000-$4,000 to repair).
I read it over, scoffed at most of their scare tactics, and recycle binned the letter. But I did wonder just how many folks would ultimately sign up for the "insurance".
Edit to add: my source is that this happened to me, it was enormously expensive to repair. I still wouldn't get this insurance though.