California battery rebate
The SGIP battery rebate in 2026: what's left and who can get it
California's Self-Generation Incentive Program paid for a lot of home batteries. Most of it has now wound down. Here's what remains, who qualifies, and how the paperwork actually works.
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By the Golden Hour Energy editorial team. How we research and check our guides
For most Southern California homeowners, the SGIP battery rebate is over. For income-qualified households, a smaller pot is still paying, mostly from a waitlist. The money that came from utility customers stopped taking new applications on December 30, 2025, and the CPUC canceled every application still waiting for that money at year end (2026 SGIP Handbook). What's left is a state-funded budget for low-income homes that runs until June 30, 2028. This guide covers where each budget stands, what it pays, who qualifies, and the traps we see in proposals that lean on it.
If you only want the short version of whether a battery makes sense for your home, start with our home battery guide. This page is the deep dive on the rebate itself.
What SGIP is, in one paragraph
The Self-Generation Incentive Program pays toward equipment that makes or stores power on site. For homes, that has meant batteries. It's overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission and run day to day by five program administrators: PG&E, Southern California Edison, SoCalGas, the Center for Sustainable Energy (which handles SDG&E customers) and, for one budget only, LADWP (CPUC). Each administrator has its own pots of money, so the answer to “is SGIP open?” depends on which utility you're with and which budget you'd qualify for.
Why most of SGIP closed
Two kinds of money have paid for SGIP. Most of it came from utility customers' bills, $813.4 million authorized for 2020 through 2024. State law set January 1, 2026 as the date unspent ratepayer money goes back to lower rates. The CPUC adopted the close-out rules in Decision 25-12-003 on December 4, 2025 (Stoel Rives regulatory update, proposed decision). The handbook spells out what that meant: reservations only through December 31, 2025, a December 30 deadline for new applications, and cancellation of every ratepayer-funded application on a waitlist (2026 SGIP Handbook, sections 1.1 and 2.1.1.1.6).
The second kind is $280 million from the state's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund under AB 209. It pays only for low-income residential customers, and it's the budget still taking applications.
- June 2, 2025Still openLow-income solar + storage budget opensReservations open for the AB 209 Residential Solar and Storage Equity (RSSE) budget, funded by the state, not utility bills.
- Dec 4, 2025DeadlineCPUC adopts the close-out decisionDecision 25-12-003 sets the rules for returning unspent ratepayer money and for closing the state-funded budget in 2028.
- Dec 30, 2025EndedRatepayer-funded budgets stop taking applicationsGeneral market, equity resiliency and ratepayer equity budgets close. Applications still on those waitlists on December 31 are canceled.
- June 30, 2028DeadlineLast day for AB 209 applicationsNew and waitlist applications to the low-income budget must be in by this date. Unused money then shifts to administrators with waitlists.
The budgets, and what each one paid
SGIP pays per watt-hour of battery capacity. The general market budget stepped down as each tranche sold out, from $0.50 per watt-hour in step 1 to $0.15 in step 7, its last step. The equity budgets used flat rates (2026 SGIP Handbook, tables 4.1.1 and 4.1.2):
- General market small residential: any homeowner on an eligible utility. Last rate $0.15 per watt-hour. Closed.
- Equity resiliency: $1.00 per watt-hour for homes facing outage risk (a Tier 2 or 3 high fire threat district, two or more Public Safety Power Shutoffs, or one shutoff plus a wildfire outage) that also met a need test, such as low income, medical baseline enrollment, or a serious medical condition on file with the utility. Closed.
- Residential Solar and Storage Equity (RSSE): $1.10 per watt-hour of storage, plus $3.10 per watt of new solar, for low-income households. The ratepayer-funded version closed. The AB 209 version is open or waitlisted depending on your administrator.
Here's what those rates mean on a common battery size. These are straight multiplications, before the cost limits covered further down.
- General market, step 7$0.15/Wh, closed$2,025
- Equity resiliency$1.00/Wh, closed$13,500
- RSSE storage (AB 209)$1.10/Wh, waitlisted$14,850
Status by utility, October 2026
The program metrics page updates nightly. On October 26, 2026, it showed every ratepayer-funded residential budget closed at all four utility administrators. The AB 209 low-income budget was waitlisted almost everywhere in Southern California. The one open slice was SCE's sub-budget for customers of city-owned utilities that SGIP assigns to SCE, with $1 million left (SGIP program metrics).
| Topic | General market | Equity resiliency | Low-income (AB 209) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCE | Closed | Closed | Waitlist (city-utility sub-budget open) |
| SDG&E (via CSE) | Closed | Closed | Waitlist |
| SoCalGas | Closed | Closed | Waitlist |
| LADWP | Not offered | Not offered | Waitlist |
Which administrator is yours?
If you're on SCE, your administrator is SCE. On SDG&E, it's the Center for Sustainable Energy. LADWP handles the low-income budget for its own customers. For the AB 209 budget, customers of most other city-owned utilities in the region, including Anaheim, Riverside, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Azusa and the Imperial Irrigation District, are assigned to SoCalGas (SGIP administrator assignments). A home that sits in both SCE or LADWP territory and SoCalGas territory can apply to only one administrator (2026 SGIP Handbook).
Who qualifies for what's left
The AB 209 budget is for low-income homes, single-family or multifamily. A single-family household qualifies one of two ways: income at or below 80% of area median income, shown with your latest federal tax return, or completed income verification through CARE, FERA, ESA, SASH or DAC-SASH (2026 SGIP Handbook, section 3.2.1). Renters can apply with a letter showing the owner's approval.
- Your household income is at or below 80% of the area median for your county.
- You're enrolled in CARE, FERA or the Energy Savings Assistance program and your income was verified.
- You're adding new solar along with the battery, or the battery alone fits your evening use.
- You can wait. A waitlisted application may take months to fund, or may not fund.
- Your income is above the 80% line. The budgets for everyone else closed in December 2025.
- You'd lose CARE or FERA before payment. SGIP cancels applications that relied on a program you leave.
- You want to expand existing panels with SGIP money. RSSE pays only for new solar.
- You need the money at signing. SGIP pays after installation, inspection and claim review.
How the application works
Homeowners don't usually file SGIP on their own. Every application goes through the online portal at selfgenca.com, and the project has to name an approved SGIP developer, usually your installer (2026 SGIP Handbook, sections 2.1 and 3.7). The CPUC's own advice is to work with an installer who can handle the process (CPUC). You are still the “host customer,” the person who holds the reservation, and you can change the installer or developer on it.
Residential projects follow a two-step process:
- Your installer
- Checks which budget you might fit, sizes the battery, and files a Reservation Request Form on selfgenca.com. Only approved SGIP developers can be named on an application.
- You
- Sign the reservation form as the host customer and send proof of eligibility. For the low-income budget that's your tax return, or proof of CARE, FERA or ESA enrollment with income verified.
- The program administrator
- Reviews the file and issues a reservation letter, or places it on the waitlist. Missing items get an email, and the reply window is 15 days at this stage.
- Your installer
- Installs, gets permission to operate from the utility, then files the Incentive Claim Form within 12 months of the confirmed reservation. An inspection may follow before payment.
A reservation can be extended up to three times, six months each, for delays outside your control. When a single day's applications exceed the money left in a budget step, SGIP runs a lottery. Applications not drawn in a budget's final step go to the waitlist in the order they came in (2026 SGIP Handbook, sections 2.1.1.1.4 and 2.1.2).
Sizing rules that change the check
SGIP pays on up to 30 kWh of storage for a single-family home. Above 15 kWh, the installer has to justify the size with your data: for a battery paired with solar, the average daily extra solar in a summer month; for a battery alone, your average daily use from 4 to 9 p.m. in a summer month. Only the justified capacity earns the rate (2026 SGIP Handbook, sections 4.2.1 and 6.2.4). That's the same evening-use logic we use to size batteries in the solar calculator.
The traps to watch for
A rebate baked into the price before it's reserved
If a proposal subtracts an SGIP rebate from your price, ask which budget it assumes, whether a reservation letter has been issued, and what happens to your price if it never comes. With every Southern California budget closed or waitlisted, an unreserved rebate is a hope, not a discount.
The rebate can't exceed what the system costs
SGIP plus every other incentive and tax credit can't add up to more than the eligible project cost. SGIP also assumes someone is claiming a federal tax credit worth 30% of the cost, and generally pays up to the remaining 70% unless your paperwork shows why the project couldn't qualify for the credit or be owned by a company that can claim it (2026 SGIP Handbook, section 4.5.6). Homeowners who buy outright no longer get the federal credit for systems placed in service after 2025, which is why many equity projects in 2026 use a lease or PPA. Our lease vs buy guide covers what to check in those contracts.
Rate plan rules
Residential SGIP batteries must be on an SGIP-approved time-of-use rate. Most also had to join a demand response program, but low-income RSSE customers are exempt. Customers on older NEM 1.0 or 2.0 solar generally had to move to the current Net Billing Tariff to get SGIP. RSSE and a few equity categories are the exceptions (2026 SGIP Handbook, section 6.2.4). If you're on an older plan, read our NEM 3.0 guide before you change anything.
Losing eligibility mid-way
If you qualified through CARE, FERA or ESA and get dropped from that program before SGIP pays, the application is canceled. Keep your enrollment current until the money arrives.
If SGIP is out of reach: grid support programs
A battery can also earn money by helping the grid. The California Energy Commission's Demand Side Grid Support program pays customers to cut load or supply backup power during extreme grid events, with a season that runs from May to October (California Energy Commission). Homeowners often take part through their battery maker or installer, which enrolls batteries as a group, often called a virtual power plant. Pay terms change by season, so ask your installer what's available for your brand and utility before you count it in your savings.
The CPUC also lists other help for income-qualified homeowners on its low-income solar page. For what the batteries themselves cost, see our Powerwall 3 cost guide.