Oh do make sure you have it grounded and are careful skuzzy, I had a "fun" time once with a barely-loose 30-amp plug after ariving in the middle of the night somewhere and having to drag the geny out, hook it and fire it up in about 8-inches of snow.
I'm curious about what it is in the code and requirements though that make it an overpriced chore since it sounds like you guys have the equipment already. Need to pull a new electrical permit and licensed electrician to install it? Need to supply backup power for "all critical" services in the building if attempting to supply power to just a single service? I understand it can be one (or more) of many issues with the local codes and regs. Maintenance, security (of the equipment) and running costs of the more mobile and labor-intensive settup you have now to supply backup power to specific systems might just be the best choice.
I'm privy to this knowledge because my family has a mountain vacation place that is off the grid, so we use a combination of solar and generator power to get the juice we need (with a smaller independent system for just our water/well, and long story short, is how I've come to conclude you spend money for the Xantrex inverters or nothing). I drag out our Honda from the shed and hook it up to the main system's inverter for 99% of our generator power needs (usually to top-off the batteries every day in the winter, or if I'm running some heavy electrical equipment in the light-plentiful summers), just because it's cheaper to run and maintain (and if something major breaks on it, I can take it home with me to fix and then take back), but we have a permanent propane-powered generator that when we built the place got us our certificate of completion/occupancy. Propane generators are expenciver and cost more to maintain, but if I set it to "auto" it's kick-in and start-up time is near instant when it detects and outage or the battery loads are too low. Their source of fuel (and means of storing it) though is probabley their one major upside though, you can get a large-capacity outdoor above-ground tank without any hastle (other than the cost, lol) and the effective-lifetime of the fuel is longer too (so if you don't use up all the propane in the tank within 5-years, no problem).
One of my ideas that I think is ahead of it's (feasabley reasonable and economic) range are permanent solar backup power instalations for commercial aplications. Basicaly it's a system large enough to handle the limited services that need constant power, so in comparison to a complete 24/7 solar system it would be just a fraction: a small inverter, a couple batteries and a pannel or two on the roof. The idea being 1% of the time it provides the limited backup power you need and keeps the batteries charged and 49% of the time it's generating power to go into the grid and generating some revenue (and ~50% of the time, the sun will be down).
