Budget Categories Overview

SGIP has three budget category types for energy storage projects: General Market, Equity and Equity Resiliency. Each budget has its own eligibility requirements.

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 Equity budget category was created to help make energy storage solutions more affordable for low-income, indigenous and underrepresented communities.

The Equity Resiliency budget provides incentives for residential and nonresidential 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 Criteria

Large-scale Storage

The Large-Scale Storage budget provides incentives for nonresidential customers installing any size of qualifying energy storage technology or for residential customers installing a system greater than 10 kW.

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 10 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.

Equity Criteria

The Equity budget provides increased incentives for residential energy storage systems installed at eligible multifamily and single-family low-income housing and for nonresidential installations in low-income and disadvantaged communities (DACs) or owned and operated by qualifying public agencies.

Eligible battery energy storage projects receive a $0.85/Wh incentive. The equity incentive could cover as much as 85% of cost.

Residential

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 criteria is defined as:

Single-family low-income residence.
Sold at an affordable housing cost.
Owned by a lower income household.
Subject to income verification and a resale restriction or qualifying equity sharing agreement.

Households may qualify if participating in or are eligible for the following solar programs: SASH, DAC-SASH, MASH or SOMAH.

Nonresidential

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 Criteria

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 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). This covers approximately 100% of the cost of an energy storage system.

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: SASH, DAC-SASH, MASH 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.