Solar Battery Savings program grows: SDCP reports 21 MW enrolled and $10M pilot rebates

San Diego Community Power staff on Sept. 24 gave a detailed update on the Solar Battery Savings (SVS) program, which the agency says supports its virtual power plant goals and helps local customers install storage paired with solar.

Colin Sanuli, senior director of customer energy programs, said the residential SVS program and related initiatives are intended to help SDCP reach its local capacity goal of offsetting or powering 300 MW of peak demand by 2035. “We have 21 megawatts currently enrolled in a residential solar battery savings program,” Sanuli said, counting the 2024 pilot and relaunch enrollments.

Emily Fischer, senior program manager and SVS lead, reviewed the program’s pilot and relaunch. She said the 2024 pilot issued about $10 million in upfront incentives to over 1,400 customers and installed roughly 2,000 batteries, which together provided 13 MWh of managed capacity. The relaunched multi-year program includes a 90 MWh target broken into three 30 MWh steps; staff said they are about 35% of the way through step one with roughly 700 installed projects and more than 500 pending installations.

Fischer described market shifts that affected uptake — notably changes in federal tax incentives and the rise of third-party ownership models — and said the program has adapted to prioritize new-storage installations and support the local contractor network. She noted the program aims for at least half of incentive dollars to go to non-market-rate customers (those on income-based assistance or living in disadvantaged communities); during the pilot the share was 41% and the program is reporting 43% to date.

Board members pressed staff on consumer protections for third-party-owned systems and whether contractors could exploit incentives to the detriment of homeowners. Fischer said staff reviews contracts, flags projects with excessive costs, limits participation by aggregators that would control systems, and is developing workshops to help consumers evaluate offers. SDCP also contracts with Home Energy Academy to run customer workshops and with third parties to run bill-impact studies to quantify participant outcomes.

Public commenter Jake Marshall, who identified himself as manager of a local wholesale distributor and a CALSSA board member, praised the program’s benefit to local contractors and urged continuation of policies that support local installers.