PG&E and Sunrun: The Battery Programs, What They Paid and Who Qualified

PG&E and Sunrun have run programs that pay Sunrun customers in PG&E territory to let their home batteries send stored solar power to the grid on summer evenings. The first, Peak Power Rewards, paid $750 upfront plus a smart thermostat in 2023. A 2025 program under PG&E’s SAVE pilot paid $150 per battery. Neither company had confirmed a 2026 season when we checked on September 23, 2026.

This page is for a PG&E customer who has a Sunrun system, or is weighing one, and wants to know what these programs are worth and what they ask of the battery. It uses the utility’s and the company’s own announcements and the state program pages.

How the PG&E and Sunrun relationship works

PG&E is your utility. Sunrun owns or installs the solar and battery system on your roof, usually under a lease or power purchase agreement. In these programs PG&E paid for grid support, and Sunrun, acting as the aggregator, enrolled eligible customers and dispatched their batteries at set times. PG&E does not install Sunrun systems, and your PG&E bill stays a separate account with its own rate plan. For everything else about the company, see our Sunrun review.

Peak Power Rewards (2023)

PG&E announced the program on February 6, 2023 and said the CPUC approved it on January 30, 2023, as part of the state’s response to the 2022 energy emergency proclamation. The plan was to enroll up to 7,500 Sunrun solar-and-battery systems able to discharge 30 MW every day from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., August through October. Participants received a $750 upfront payment and a smart thermostat. Eligibility was limited to Sunrun customers in single-family homes with a PG&E interconnection agreement who were not enrolled in another demand response program. pge.com·checked Sep 23, 2026

By August 4, 2023 the program, by then called Peak Power Rewards, had 8,500 customers and 34 MW. pge.com·checked Sep 23, 2026 Sunrun reported on January 29, 2024 that the fleet delivered nearly 32 MW at its peak and an average of 27 MW during the evening peak for more than 90 consecutive days, and that the two companies were exploring future programs. investors.sunrun.com·checked Sep 23, 2026

SAVE and Local PeakShift Power (2025)

On March 24, 2025, PG&E launched the Seasonal Aggregation of Versatile Energy (SAVE) pilot, a virtual power plant aimed at local grid constraints rather than statewide peaks. PG&E said it would include up to 1,500 residential customers with batteries and up to 400 with smart electric panels, with Sunrun and SPAN as the aggregators, for up to 100 hours from June through October 2025. It said the customers were spread across its service area with a concentration in the South Bay and the Central Valley, that 60% were in disadvantaged or low-income communities, and that Sunrun customers would keep at least a 20% backup reserve. investor.pgecorp.com·checked Sep 23, 2026

Sunrun reported on February 24, 2026 that its part of SAVE, called Local PeakShift Power, used more than 1,000 customer systems, dispatched for more than 1,200 hours from July to October 2025 across more than two dozen constrained lines and substations, and paid enrolled customers $150 per battery. investors.sunrun.com·checked Sep 23, 2026 The announcement did not say whether the program continues in 2026.

Statewide programs Sunrun batteries also join

Beyond PG&E’s own pilots, Sunrun enrolls batteries in state programs open to customers of all three large utilities. Sunrun reported that on September 9, 2026 it and Tesla dispatched 580 MW from more than 140,000 home batteries across the PG&E, SCE and SDG&E areas under the California Energy Commission’s Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program and the CPUC’s Emergency Load Reduction Program. investors.sunrun.com·checked Sep 23, 2026 DSGS runs from May to October and pays for capacity commitments and measured load reduction during extreme events. energy.ca.gov·checked Sep 23, 2026 The CPUC says the residential part of ELRP, Power Saver Rewards, ended after the 2025 program year. cpuc.ca.gov·checked Sep 23, 2026

What to ask before you enroll

• Which program is this, who runs it, and is it approved for this year?
• What is the payment, how is it calculated, and when is it paid?
• How many events or hours should I expect, and at what times?
• How much charge is kept for my own backup, and can I opt out of an event?
• Does enrollment stop me joining another program, or change my agreement with Sunrun?

A program payment is a bonus on top of the battery’s main job. Under the CPUC’s net billing tariff, PG&E net-billing customers take the E-ELEC rate, and export credits are usually below the retail rate, so most of a battery’s value comes from using stored solar in your own evening hours. cpuc.ca.gov·checked Sep 23, 2026 Read our guides to PG&E time-of-use rates and battery payback under NEM 3.0 before you count on program income, and see what a Powerwall 3 costs installed if you are pricing a battery.

If you are not a Sunrun customer

These PG&E pilots were run through Sunrun, and SAVE also used SPAN smart panels. Owners of other batteries can still take part in state programs through the company that enrolls them; Tesla’s Powerwall fleet joined the September 2026 dispatch alongside Sunrun’s. Ask the installer or battery maker which programs it enrolls customers in where you live. Compare how each ownership option handles these payments with the lease, PPA, loan and cash comparison.