Many Charedi Jews in Israel do not use electricity from the Israeli Electric Company on Shabbos.
There are generators in pretty much all Charedi cities these days…the problem mentioned of being smelly, noisy etc is not an issue because they are not individual, people are “hooked up” to a central generator.
Some people also choose to use Rechargeable Batteries (big ones) to power their homes; although this wont cover air conditioners so they are often not used.
A lot of Charedi people use from the regular Hashmal but many here are concerned about this issue, although to be part of a generator can sometimes double a monthly electric bill.
There is a lot of uncertainty about what goes on in the electric company on Shabbos and people have all different versions of events.
My understanding is that the Psak from Rav Shlomo Zalman works for when there is a problem with the electricity but not when things are being done manually by Jews during normal function of electricity ie. when they dont need to.
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