Budget Categories Overview

SGIP has four budget category types for energy storage projects: General Market, Non-Residential Equity, Residential Solar and Storage Equity, and Equity Resiliency. Eligibility requirements vary by budget.

The General Market budget covers the bulk of the consumer market from small-scale residential to large-scale commercial energy storage projects. Projects are based on storage system size and sector.
The Non-Residential Equity budget was created to make energy storage solutions more affordable for businesses serving low-income, Indigenous and underrepresented communities.
The Residential Solar and Storage Equity budget was created to make residential energy storage and storage plus solar solutions more affordable for low-income, Indigenous and underrepresented electric utility customers.
The Equity Resiliency budget provides incentives for residential and non-residential storage systems for low-income, vulnerable customers in High Fire-Threat Districts and those impacted by Public Safety Power Shutoff events.

Nonresidential Projects are subjected to a 5% application fee upon application submittal.

Budget Category Eligibility Requirements

General Market

Large-scale Storage

The Large-Scale Storage budget provides incentives for nonresidential customers installing any size of qualifying energy storage technology.

Critical nonresidential facilities that serve communities in high fire-threat areas may be eligible to receive a $0.15/Wh adder to the current nonresidential incentive for energy storage technologies.

Small Residential Storage

The Small Residential budget provides incentives for residential customers installing a qualifying energy storage system less than or equal to 30 kW. The current funding step reserves 50% of funds for projects that are in a High Fire Threat District (HFTD) or for projects that have experienced 2+ Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) or wildfire events.

View current incentive rates.

View available funding per budget category.

Non-Residential Equity

The Non-Residential Equity budget provides increased incentives for energy storage systems installed at non-residential sites in low-income or disadvantaged communities (DACs), or for systems owned and operated by eligible public agencies.

Eligible facilities must be one of the following:

Local government agency.
State government agency.
Tribal government agency.
Educational institution.
Nonprofit organization.
Small business.

AND meet one of the following criteria:

Facility is in a disadvantaged, tribal, low-income community or document that at least 50% of the census tracts it serves are disadvantaged, tribal or low-income communities.
Any facility owned or operated by a public agency that provides services to DAC or low-income community members for which at least 50% of census tracts served are DACs or low-income communities.

Equity Resiliency

The Equity Resiliency budget provides incentives to help address critical needs resulting from wildfire risks in the state and to assist customers affected by Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events, Enhanced Power Safety Settings (EPSS) events or wildfire events as well as critical services facilities serving such areas or people.

Incentive rates are calculated to the watt-hour at a rate of $1.00/Wh ($1,000/kilowatt-hour). The Equity Resiliency incentive could cover as much as 100% of the cost.

Residential

Projects are eligible if they meet one of the following criteria:

Is located in a Tier 2 or 3 High Fire-Threat District (HFTD).
Has experienced two or more PSPS events.
Has experienced one PSPS event and one outage due to an actual wildfire that occurred on or after January 1, 2017.

AND meet one of the following additional criteria:

Multifamily deed-restricted housing or single-family homes subject to resale restrictions and qualify as low income.
Reside in California Indian Country and qualify as low income.
Currently enrolled in a medical baseline program with an independently owned utility company.
Notified utility of illness or condition that could become life-threatening during outages.
Home relies on electric pump wells for water and qualify as low income.

Households that have participated in or are eligible for any of the following solar programs also may qualify: CARE, DAC-SASH, ESA, FERA, MASH, SASH or SOMAH.

Nonresidential

Projects are eligible if they meet one of the following criteria:

Is located in a Tier 2 or 3 High Fire-Threat District (HFTD).
Has experienced two or more PSPS events.
Has experienced one PSPS event and one outage due to an actual wildfire that occurred on or after January 1, 2017.

AND meet both of the following criteria:

Provide critical facilities or infrastructure during a PSPS event to at least one community located at least partially in a Tier 2 or 3 HFTD OR were subject to two or more PSPS events prior to SGIP application.
Community served also meets eligibility for the Equity budget.

AND meet one of the following additional criteria:

Police station, fire station, emergency response provider, tribal government provider, emergency operations center, 911 call center or medical facility.
Private or public natural gas, electric, water, wastewater or flood facility.
Jail or prison, utility designated PSPS center, cooling center or homeless shelter.
Grocery store, supermarket or corner store with less than $15 million in annual gross receipts.
Independent living center or emergency feeding organization.

Residential Solar and Storage Equity

The Residential Solar and Storage Equity budget provides increased incentives for energy storage and storage systems paired with solar installed at eligible low-income single-family and multifamily housing.

Eligible battery energy storage projects receive $1.10/Wh. Eligible solar paired with battery energy storage projects may be eligible for a solar incentive rate of $3.10/W. The Residential Solar and Storage Equity incentive can cover as much as 100% of the cost. 

For Residential Solar and Storage Equity projects only, the new Advanced Payment Program allows SGIP developers to receive 50% of the project incentive upon receiving a Confirmed Reservation Letter, helping reduce upfront cost barriers for low-income Host Customers.

Eligible multifamily housing is defined as:

At least five rental units.
Deed-restricted low-income.
Either in a DAC or at least 80% of households ≤ 60% of area median income.

Eligible single-family housing is defined as:

Single-family residence with a household income of 80% AMI or less.
Income must be verified.

Households may qualify if they have undergone income verification through participation in one of the following eligible programs: CARE, DAC-SASH, ESA, FERA, MASH, SASH or SOMAH.