The Duck Curve, NEM 3, and YOU - Part 3
- Jeff Jorgenson
- Apr 4
- 6 min read
There are various state and local programs to assist in financing, installation, billing discounts, it depends on where you live. And do you know what? Speaking as a college educated, silicon valley veteran and seasoned public employee bureaucrat - These are NOT easy to navigate!
For instance I spent hours figuring out that the Federal Solar Tax Credit, the Residential Clean Energy Credit and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) - are all the same thing!!! They all are names for 30 percent tax credit provided by the federal government for individuals installing solar systems on residential property.
Here is a list of other programs designed to help people living in Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) or with low to medium income.
Federal
Energy Efficient Home Credit - The Energy Efficient Home Credit offers up to $1,200 in annual tax credits for homeowners to make their properties more energy efficient. With the Energy Efficient Home Credit, you can receive a tax credit up to $600 for your energy management system (or 30% of the total system costs, whichever is lesser) if it’s an upgrade of your electrical panel.
High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act - The federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created programs to help pay for clean energy retrofits in homes across the U.S. The California Energy Commission (CEC) is launching three programs under the IRA: Home Efficiency Rebates (HOMES), Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEEHRA), and Training for Residential Energy Contractors (CA-TREC). Right now only HEEHRA is live. HEEHRA includes up to $14,000 in point-of-sale rebates per household for “qualified electrification projects.” When it comes to installing an energy management system, you could receive up to $6,500 in HEEHRA rebates: $4,000 towards upgrading your electrical panel and $2,500 towards electrical wiring.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) reduces energy costs for low-income households by increasing the energy efficiency of their homes. The general page is pretty useless but the how to apply page describes where to go for help and how the process works. For California it’s our good friends at the California Department of Community Services and Development that can help improve the efficiency of your home via:
Sealing holes and cracks around doors, windows, and pipes
Checking that your home is properly insulated
Repairing or replacing windows
Checking that heating and air conditioning systems run smoothly
Repairing or replacing water heaters
Eligibility requirements are here: https://www.csd.ca.gov/Pages/DOE-Income-Eligibility.aspx
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) - helping people pay home heating bills, preventing energy shutoffs, and making homes more energy efficient. It covers things like: home energy audits, insulation, major appliance replacements (e.g., heating/cooling systems and water tanks), doors and windows, energy efficient upgrades, other energy-related minor repairs. To see if you or someone you know is eligible: https://liheapch.acf.hhs.gov/eligibility-tool
California
CARE and FERA - The California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) and Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) offer discounts to energy bills.
With CARE - Qualifying individuals and households of two or more receive up to 30% off their electric bills.
With FERA - Qualifying families and households of three or more receive an 18% discount on their electric bills.
Here’s a list of the current program limits: https://www.sce.com/residential/assistance/fera-care
These discounts apply regardless of solar installation.
Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT) - The Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT) provides local solar energy at a 20% bill discount for both income-qualified and non-income qualified residential customers in Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) who may be unable to install solar on their roof. All energy providers in the state already have or will have a program.
Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff (DAC-GT) - The Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff (DAC-GT) provides utility scale clean energy at a 20% bill discount for income-qualified, residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof. Each energy provider in California has a program. The DAC-GT website provides links to each one.
Farmworker Housing Single-Family Energy Efficiency and Solar Photovoltaics - What does it fund?
No-cost direct installation of energy efficiency measures, solar water heating, and solar photovoltaic systems at farmworker dwellings. The program targets energy efficiency measures and rooftop solar PV for low-income farmworker households in the 18 counties with the largest farmworker populations. No-cost!!! How cool is that?
Low-Income Weatherization Program (LIWP) provides low-income households with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and energy efficiency upgrades at no cost to residents. LIWP is funded through California Climate Investments using proceeds from the state's cap-and-trade auctions (see below).
Property Assessed Clean Energy - (PACE) enables property owners to finance up to 100% of the upfront cost of clean energy projects, and is paid through a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill. The state’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation offers this explanation and warning: PACE programs provide a unique type of financing that allows homeowners to finance energy efficient, water saving and other environmentally beneficial improvements through their property taxes. But financing home improvements through PACE programs can involve risks: https://dfpi.ca.gov/consumers/housing/pace/.
Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) and Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) were launched in 2009 by the state but have now been closed. provided qualified low-income homeowners fixed, up front, capacity-based incentives to help offset the upfront cost of a solar electric system.The program administrator GRID Alternatives is keeping a similar program alive called DAC-SASH with alternative grant funding from the California Climate Investments (see below).
Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing - SOMAH - provides financial incentives to all qualified affordable multifamily apartment homes to aid in solar installation costs. Their website contains a cool incentive calculator. Check it out.
Eligibility requirements are here: https://calsomah.org/program-overview-requirements
PG&E does a good job of providing programs to help customers reduce their bills. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE) sponsors the San Diego Solar Equity Program (SDSEP) for income qualified customers, and Southern California Edison (SCE) offers the Summer Discount Program. Here are PG&E’s programs:
Demand response (DR) programs - PG&E's demand response programs are designed to enable customers to contribute to energy load reduction during times of peak demand. Most PG&E demand response programs also offer financial incentives for load reduction during times of peak demand. You can only enroll in one at a time:
Automated Response Technology - Smart technology in your home optimizes your energy use according to your rate and during times of very demand.
Power Saver Rewards Program - Reduce your energy use to conserve energy on select hot summer days when demand for electricity is high.
SmartAC™ - A SmartAC switch remotely shifts some of your energy use out of the hours when it's most in demand. For customers with an air conditioning unit.
Green Saver program - helps some income-qualified residential customers in select communities save 20% on their electricity bill by subscribing to 100% solar energy. Check out the link for eligibility requirements and to sign up. It’s a popular program and right now there is a waitlist.
Self-Generation Incentive Program - (SGIP) - is a financial rebate program for qualified PG&E residential and business customers installing battery storage systems. As usual there are a number of eligibility requirements that can be found at the link. One I’ll point out since it is very topical at the moment is - PG&E may cover the full cost of your battery storage installation if you live in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 High Fire-Threat District (HFTD).
Central Coast Community Energy - aka 3CE
These are the folks that actually generate the electricity to my house. It is transmitted via PG&E infrastructure. They also offer programs to reduce residential utility burden.
Electrify Your Home - is a 3CE partnership with TECH Clean California. This partnership provides cash incentives to contractors for qualifying heat pump projects in the 3CE service area. Appliances must be purchased between August 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025. Rebates here: https://3cenergy.org/rebates/electrify-your-home/
Electrify Your Ride – Residential - The Electrify Your Ride Program provides 3CE customers with a “one-stop-shop” for transportation electrification rebates and support. Rebates are available for electric vehicles, chargers, and EV readiness (electrical work related to charger installation). Rebates here: https://3cenergy.org/rebates/electrify-your-ride-residential/
Residential Battery Rebate Program - Pretty straightforward buy and install a battery and get a rebate. For customers not enrolled in NEM1 or NEM 2 its $300/kWh. As an example, for a battery installation with 13 kWh capacity, a customer receiving the standard rebate of $300 per kWh would get a total rebate of $3,900. Pretty sweet. The kicker is you need to promise to program your battery to discharge at least 50% of its capacity daily during peak hours (4 PM to 9 PM PT) and allow this to be monitored by enrolling in load-shift tracking with Texture and agree to allow 3CE to track battery load shifting.
A word about California Climate Investments and what they do. California Climate Investments is funded by proceeds from the sale of state‑owned allowances from quarterly Cap‑and‑Trade auctions that are deposited into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). On a yearly basis, the Legislature distributes the money from the GGRF to programs administered by different State agencies (see DAC-SASH above).
Like this one reported by Ryan Kennedy for PV Magazine: California company deploys solar-plus-batteries at no cost to low-income customers.
So in this Part, I’ve covered many of the larger incentives in California and there are more. Here’s a nifty tool from The Switch is On, that let’s you look for rebates and incentives in California: https://incentives.switchison.org/contractors
The Switch Is On is a collaborative campaign to support home electrification by providing tools, support, and resources to Californians.
Next up we’ll explore various strategies and programs that can leverage your new investment in increasingly “smart” ways: VPP, V2G, Peak Shaving, ELRP, DSGS… etc. You may want to look up the word “arbitrage”.