Home battery storage in California

Choose the project purpose first

• Backup loads and outage goals need selected circuits, operating duration and a commissioning plan.
• Battery cost and retrofit scope need the existing equipment, ownership, warranty, monitoring and electrical records.
• Storage without solar is a configuration to verify with the proposed equipment, installer and utility; it is not a universal permission or savings result.
• Use the plan comparison in your utility account before treating a battery as the answer; the SCE and SDG&E guides explain what to confirm on the bill.

How much battery do you actually need? (sizing by kWh)

Home batteries are sold and installed by usable capacity, and the number you need depends on what you want the battery to do, not on a sales chart. As a starting reference point, based on the manufacturer-published capacities of the three systems compared below:

• ~5 kWh (single unit) — an Enphase IQ Battery 5P on its own (Enphase Energy, accessed 2026-09-22). Enough to shift some evening usage off peak rates or keep a few essential circuits (router, some lighting, a refrigerator) running briefly. Stackable if you need more.
• 13.5–15 kWh (single unit) — a Tesla Powerwall 3 (Tesla, Inc., accessed 2026-09-22) or a FranklinWH aPower 2 (FranklinWH, accessed 2026-09-22). This is the range most California installers quote for “one battery” backup: a handful of circuits, or a full refrigerator-plus-lighting-plus-electronics load, for part of a day.
• 20 kWh and up (stacked units) — two or more units combined. This is where whole-home backup, an EV charger staying live, or multi-day outage coverage starts to become realistic.

These are capacity tiers, not a promise of what any specific home will get through an outage — how long a battery actually lasts depends on your panel, your loads, and whether HVAC is included. For a sizing method built from your own utility bill instead of a spec sheet, see our full guide: How many batteries do I need in California →

AC-coupled vs. DC-coupled: what it means for your system

You'll see “AC-coupled” and “DC-coupled” used to describe how a battery connects to solar. A DC-coupled battery ties into the solar array's output before it's converted to AC power, which can be more efficient when the battery and solar are installed together. An AC-coupled battery connects on the home's AC side, after the existing solar inverter — this is usually the simpler path when you're adding a battery to solar you already have, since it doesn't require touching the original inverter. Which configuration your quote uses depends on your existing equipment and your installer's design; ask specifically, since it affects both installed cost and how the system is wired into your panel.

Backup power vs. bill savings under NEM 3.0 — two different reasons to buy

California homeowners buy batteries for two different jobs, and it matters which one you're solving for:

• Backup power. The battery's job is to keep the lights, refrigerator, and anything else you choose on a critical-loads circuit running during a grid outage or Public Safety Power Shutoff event. This value doesn't show up as a dollar figure on a bill — it's insurance, not arbitrage.
• Bill savings under NEM 3.0. Since NEM 3.0 lowered what your utility credits you for exporting solar to the grid, some homeowners instead store their solar during the day and use it themselves in the evening, when retail rates are highest, rather than exporting it for a low credit. Whether this pencils out — and by how much — depends on your utility's export credit, your time-of-use rate, and how you use power at night.

Don't let a sales pitch collapse these into one story. For the utility-by-utility export credits and how to run the payback math on your own bill, see: Battery payback under NEM 3.0 →

What does a home battery cost in California?

Installed cost depends on the system, your panel, and your installer's labor rates — there isn't one statewide number. What the primary sources below confirm (checked September 22, 2026):

• SGIP incentive value: California's Self-Generation Incentive Program pays $1,100 per kWh of installed storage capacity under the Residential Solar and Storage Equity budget, for households that qualify and reserve funds before that budget closes (CPUC, checked September 24, 2026). On the program administrators' tracker as of September 24, 2026, the ratepayer-funded version of that budget is closed, the state-funded AB 209 version is waitlisted for PG&E, SCE, CSE, SoCalGas and LADWP electric customers, and only the budget for income-qualified customers of publicly owned utilities in PG&E's and SCE's programs shows open (selfgenca.com). A waitlist does not promise a rebate; see the SGIP section below.
• Total installed price by system: no manufacturer publishes a California installed price. The closest primary benchmark is national: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Tracking the Sun (2024 Edition) estimates that storage added roughly $750 to $1,000 per kWh to the installed price of paired residential systems in 2023. See the Powerwall 3 pricing page for what drives a Powerwall quote. For a full breakdown of what goes into an installed quote beyond hardware (electrical work, permits, a critical-loads panel), see: Home battery cost in California →

Can you get a home battery without solar in California? Yes — batteries can charge from the grid on their own, without solar panels attached. In practice, most California incentive programs and utility rate designs (including SGIP's main residential track) are built around pairing storage with solar, so a standalone battery may qualify for fewer incentives and won't reduce your solar export loss under NEM 3.0, since there's no solar to export. It still works as a straightforward backup-power purchase.

How SGIP works, in plain terms

The Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) is a California incentive for distributed energy systems installed at a customer's home, including battery storage, and it's overseen by the CPUC but run day to day by Program Administrators assigned by utility territory — PG&E, SCE, SDG&E (through the Center for Sustainable Energy), SoCalGas, and LADWP (CPUC, accessed 2026-09-22). The mechanism is a per-kWh rebate: you (or your installer, on your behalf) apply through your territory's Program Administrator, get funds reserved against that budget category, install the system, and meet program requirements within a set window. The program administrators removed the demand response enrollment requirement for the Residential Storage Equity and Residential Solar and Storage Equity budgets in January 2026, and the ratepayer-funded budgets closed to new applications at the end of 2025 under CPUC Decision 25-12-003 (SGIP announcements, checked 2026-09-23).

Not every SGIP budget category is open everywhere right now, and reservation is not the same as funding in hand — a program name on a quote is not money set aside for your project. For the live budget status by utility and category, checked as of September 10, 2026, see: SGIP battery rebate status in California →

Battery rebates that still exist in 2026

The federal residential clean energy credit does not apply to a battery whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 (IRS, checked 2026-09-23). What is left is narrower:

• PG&E's $7,500 rebate for first-time battery owners whose accounts have had five or more Wildfire Safety outages since January 1, 2024; PG&E's page showed 179 rebates remaining as of September 18, 2026 (PG&E, checked September 24, 2026). Every condition, what it covers against a Powerwall 3's installed cost, and the deadline: the Permanent Battery Storage Rebate, explained.
• Everything else a PG&E customer can use, from no-charge batteries for some CARE and Medical Baseline households to grid-event payments: PG&E solar battery incentives in one table.
• SGIP's income-qualified equity budget, mostly waitlisted, covered in the SGIP section above and on the SGIP status page. For solar incentives beyond storage, see the California solar incentives overview.

Compare the main systems, at a glance

At a glance: the Powerwall 3 stacks the most usable capacity into one unit (13.5 kWh, 10-year warranty per Tesla, Inc., accessed 2026-09-22); the Enphase IQ Battery 5P is the smallest single building block (5.0 kWh, warrantied up to 15 years or 6,000 cycles at >60% capacity retention per Enphase Energy, accessed 2026-09-22) if you want to size in small increments; the FranklinWH aPower 2 has the highest single-unit continuous output (10 kW, 15-year/60 MWh throughput warranty per FranklinWH, accessed 2026-09-22). Full specs, scaling limits, and which fits which house: Powerwall vs. Enphase vs. FranklinWH →

Choosing who installs it, and adding storage to older solar

• How to vet a battery company: the CSLB license class that covers battery work, the CPUC consumer guide you sign, and the handover documents to keep.
• Adding a Powerwall to solar you already own: Tesla's limit on existing solar per Powerwall, and what a battery-only addition means for NEM 2.0.
• Powerwall or generator for outages, compared on runtime, fuel, noise and PG&E's outage rebates.
• Solar battery backup cost and savings, for the bill-savings side of the same decision.

Batteries and your bill under NEM 3.0

Under the net billing tariff, export credits are usually below retail rates but can rise above them on late summer evenings, and the CPUC reports that nearly 70 percent of net billing customers had paired a battery with solar by the end of 2024 (CPUC, checked 2026-09-23). The hourly values are published: see what NEM 3.0 pays for exported solar, by hour, and the NEM 2.0 vs. NEM 3.0 comparison for how the tariffs differ. If you are still on NEM 2.0, the 20-year legacy clock decides when a battery starts paying its way.

California's battery fleet, and who shapes the rules

The state counted 21,112 MW of battery storage serving its grid in August 2026, about 3,000 MW of it in homes, schools and businesses (California Energy Commission, August 7, 2026). The year-by-year totals and the Texas comparison are on California battery storage capacity. For the industry group that argues storage policy at the CPUC, see what CALSSA is and what it has argued.