The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said on May 29 the initiative, when combined with a federal tax credit, is designed to cover full installation costs.
The CPUC’s ‘Self-Generation Incentive Program’ provides financial help to support existing, new, and emerging distributed energy resources.

Under the program, eligible customers can benefit from lower energy bills, backup power during outages, and provide enhanced support for grid reliability.

A single-family household can receive incentives for a 15kWh battery and a 5kW solar system. Extra incentives for more solar and up to 30kWh of storage requires load justification, the CUPC said.

The initiative was unveiled after the California Energy Commission (CEC) said on May 2 that the state’s electric grid is stronger and more resilient than in past years.

Thanks to rapid clean energy deployment, expansion of battery storage, and strategic efforts to build up emergency reserves, California heads into summer with more resources to meet electricity demand, including the extreme heat conditions experienced in recent years, the CEC said.

The CEC said California has added more than 20,000MW of new clean energy supply since 2021.

Battery storage capacity state-wide, including residential, commercial, and utility-scale installations, has surged past 13,000MW, up from about 700 MW heading into 2020.

The Strategic Reliability Reserve, established by legislation after challenges in 2020 and 2021, now provides 4,000MW of backup resources, including cleaner options like demand response programs and virtual power plants.