SGIP in California: battery rebate status, who qualifies and what it pays

What SGIP is and who runs it

The CPUC describes SGIP as incentives for distributed energy resources on the customer's side of the meter, including solar paired with storage. The state does not mail you a check. Five program administrators run it: PG&E, SCE, SoCalGas, the Center for Sustainable Energy for SDG&E's territory, and LADWP.

There were two pots of money. Ratepayer-funded budgets came from utility bills. The 2026 SGIP Handbook says administrators issued reservations from those budgets only through December 31, 2025, that December 30, 2025 was the last day to apply, and that every ratepayer-funded waitlist closed that day. The second pot is Assembly Bill 209 money: $280 million from the state's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which CPUC Decision 24-03-071 assigned to the Residential Solar and Storage Equity budget. That is the part still taking applications.

What each residential budget pays

Residential budgets pay per watt-hour of battery capacity. Small Residential Storage, the general-market budget for homes, stepped down to its seventh and final step at $0.15 per Wh. Equity Resiliency paid a flat $1.00 per Wh. San Joaquin Valley Residential and the Residential Solar and Storage Equity budget pay $1.10 per Wh, and the equity budget also pays $3.10 per watt for a new solar system. Only the equity budget still has money for homes.

The handbook's worked example shows the ceiling. A 13.2 kWh battery at $1.10 per Wh comes to $14,520, and 5 kW of solar at $3.10 per W comes to $15,500, for a maximum of $30,020. The actual award can be lower. A project that reports a total eligible cost above 90 percent of that maximum must send receipts for equipment and labor before it is paid, and electrical and critical-loads panel upgrades count toward eligible cost only up to $3,500 per project.

Who qualifies for the equity budget

The handbook's single-family test has two paths. Your household income is at or below 80 percent of the area median income, shown with your most recent federal tax documents. Or your income was already verified because you are enrolled in CARE, FERA, the Energy Savings Assistance program, SASH or DAC-SASH. If you qualify through CARE, FERA or ESA and are dropped from that program before the incentive is paid, the application is cancelled.

Apartment buildings use a different test: five or more deed-restricted low-income units in a disadvantaged community, or a building where at least 80 percent of households earn 60 percent of area median income or less. Those projects must pass at least 51 percent of the solar output to tenants as virtual net metering credits.

Three other rules catch people. AB 209 money is open to any California residential customer, including customers of city utilities and rural cooperatives. The solar incentive covers only a new system, not panels added to an existing array. And a renter needs a letter showing the owner approved the installation.

Which administrator handles your application

If a city utility or electric co-op serves your home, your AB 209 administrator is assigned, not chosen. The official assignment table sends customers of SMUD, the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, Roseville, Palo Alto, Alameda, Silicon Valley Power, Redding and Lodi to PG&E. It sends customers of Imperial Irrigation District, Riverside, Anaheim, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Azusa, Colton and Banning to SoCalGas. LADWP handles its own customers, and Valley Electric Association customers go to SCE.

The assignment decides which pot you draw from. PG&E's $99 million AB 209 share reserves $31 million for customers of publicly owned utilities, and SCE's $87.3 million reserves $1 million. Those reserved sub-budgets, labeled POU on the tracker, are the only equity money shown as open. A SMUD customer applying through PG&E draws on an open budget. A Riverside customer applying through SoCalGas joins a waitlist.

SCE customers: what Edison requires

SCE says its ratepayer-funded SGIP budgets are closed to new applicants and that its state-funded equity budget has been exhausted and is on a waitlist. The tracker agrees: SCE's non-POU equity budget, the one that serves Edison's own customers, shows a waitlist.

SCE adds conditions of its own. It says every new customer must be interconnected with Permission to Operate on the Solar Billing Plan before an SGIP incentive is paid. It requires an SGIP-approved rate and lists TOU-D-PRIME, TOU-D-5-8PM and TOU-EV-1, which is closed to new customers. It says most new projects must enroll in a qualified demand response program, although the handbook exempts low-income equity applicants from that rule. SCE points customers to vendors on its Battery Marketplace and takes program questions at SGIPGroup@sce.com.

PG&E, SDG&E, SoCalGas and LADWP customers

PG&E's SGIP page says the equity rebate can cover up to 100 percent of cost for customers who meet the income test or are enrolled in CARE, FERA or ESA. It also says the rebate is closed and that waitlist applications go through your contractor. On the tracker, PG&E's budget for its own customers is waitlisted while its city-utility sub-budget is open.

In SDG&E's territory the Center for Sustainable Energy administers SGIP. Its AB 209 budget shows a waitlist, as do the SoCalGas and LADWP budgets. None of the three had open equity money on September 23, 2026.

What a waitlist means for your quote

A waitlist position is not a reservation. Waitlisted projects move up only if reserved projects drop out or money is shifted. The handbook says that after June 30, 2028, administrators transfer unallocated AB 209 funds to administrators that still have waitlists. Nobody can promise when, or whether, your turn comes.

So price the battery as if the incentive never arrives. Ask for an itemized quote with the incentive on its own line, then the amount you would owe if it is approved, if it is paid late, and if it is denied. If the project only works with the incentive, keep your place in line and hold off on signing. Get the application reference number and check its status with the administrator yourself.

How an application is filed

Homeowners rarely file alone. The CPUC and the utilities point customers to an installer or developer, who prepares the application and requests the reservation. The handbook makes the host customer, the utility customer of record at the site, the holder of the reservation, and lets the host customer name or replace the applicant, system owner and developer at any time.

Ask the developer in writing which budget and administrator it is applying to, which documents it needs from you, and who will receive the payment. Keep copies of everything submitted. If a salesperson says you qualify, ask which of the handbook's eligibility paths they relied on and what document proves it.

Other California battery rebates to check

SGIP is not the only program. PG&E's Permanent Battery Storage Rebate pays $7,500 to first-time battery owners with five or more Wildfire Safety outages since January 1, 2024. PG&E showed 179 rebates left as of September 18, 2026, with a December 31, 2026 deadline. PG&E's Residential Storage Initiative installs a battery at no charge for some income-qualified or medically vulnerable customers on circuits with repeated EPSS outages, and PG&E says its 2026 supply is almost gone. SCE's Critical Care Backup Battery program provides a portable battery to eligible Medical Baseline customers in high fire risk areas.

The federal credit is out of the picture for a battery you buy now. The IRS says the residential clean energy credit is not allowed for expenditures made after December 31, 2025.