Under "normal conditions", dicking around with your electric meter would be presumed to be in aid of bypassing the meter. Especially with the profusion of Grow Ops. I'd presume it's still illegal in those places where it ever was illegal, or at least a possible invitation to get the police to tear your house apart.
However, a power company is going to look pretty stupid prosecuting people for asking for the meter to be reinstalled/resealed after a power failure took out the whole _state_.
I've seen power companies _themselves_ say "you gotta do what you gotta do, be damn careful, and we'll reconnect it for you later no charge" in less dire situations.
[One example being finishing off a panel switchover that just happened to collide with a power company strike, and they couldn't supply anybody to move the feed.]If in doubt, and to be on the safe side, I'd ask the power company. If you can get through...
Of the generator connections we "inspected", by far the biggest one was the one we made ourselves. Most of the generator setups were portable 3-6Kw rigs. We were asked to install one for the township in the "garage".
Thinking it's a little dinky