Free batteries for the hills, almost: how the state's SGIP equity tiers work in San Francisco

I. How the equity tiers work

SGIP is run statewide under the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and in our area the paperwork and payments flow through PG&E. The money sits in three buckets. The general market bucket pays a modest rebate per kilowatt-hour of battery you install. The equity bucket pays more and is aimed at income-qualified customers and certain communities. The equity resiliency bucket, the one people mean when they say free, pays the most, on the order of roughly $1,000 per kilowatt-hour of storage at last public report, enough to cover most or all of one typical home battery.

What puts a household in that top bucket is two tests at once. You must already be on an income-qualified rate, meaning CARE or FERA (the state discounts for lower-income homes) or the Medical Baseline program (for people who need power for health reasons). And you must either sit inside a Tier 2 or Tier 3 High Fire-Threat District (the map the state uses to mark the riskiest lines) or have lived through two or more Public Safety Power Shutoffs, the planned outages the utility calls during dangerous fire weather.

II. The honest math on what it covers

A common home battery holds roughly 10 to 14 kilowatt-hours. At the equity resiliency rate the rebate can roughly match, and sometimes exceed, the hardware cost of a single battery, which is where almost free comes from. The word to keep is almost: installation, the electrical permit from the city, a main-panel upgrade if your box is old, and any second battery can still leave you with a bill. Get that number in writing before you picture the rebate as the whole price.

During an outage a battery this size runs the things that matter for a stretch of hours, maybe a day: the refrigerator, lights, phones, the internet router, a medical device. It will not carry whole-home electric heat or air conditioning for days, and anyone who promises that is selling. Fog works in your favor here. San Francisco rarely needs air conditioning, so the backup load most homes actually plan for is small, and a single battery stretches further than it would in Phoenix or Sacramento.

III. Who actually qualifies in the city

The fire-prone hills framing fits the East Bay and the North Bay far better than it fits us. Most of San Francisco is not inside a Tier 2 or Tier 3 High Fire-Threat District, and you can confirm your own address on the CPUC fire-threat map in a couple of minutes. For the city, in other words, the fire door into the top tier is narrow, and it is honest to say so up front.

More often the way in here is the other half of the test. If you are on CARE, FERA, or Medical Baseline and you have a PSPS history or a documented medical need, you can reach the resiliency tier without the fire map. Many city households also qualify for the plain equity bucket on income alone, which still pays a strong rebate even when it is not the resiliency maximum. Whether you land in the top tier or the one below it depends on your rate and your exact address.

IV. How to apply, and the waitlist

You usually do not file this yourself. A battery installer who is a registered SGIP developer submits the reservation on your behalf, so the first moves are yours to make easy for them: confirm you are enrolled in CARE, FERA, or Medical Baseline with PG&E, check your address on the fire-threat map, and then collect quotes from two or three installers who handle SGIP paperwork as a matter of course. Ask each one which tier they expect you to qualify for.

Funds run in budget rounds that open, draw down, and sometimes close to a waitlist. The equity resiliency money in particular has been oversubscribed and waitlisted in past rounds, and whether cash is available the week you apply genuinely changes. Ask your installer for the current reservation status in PG&E's territory before you sign anything, because a quote is not a reservation and a reservation is not a payment.

V. Worth watching this month

1. Check whether your address falls in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 High Fire-Threat District on the CPUC fire-threat map, since that one fact decides the richest tier.

2. Confirm your enrollment in CARE, FERA, or Medical Baseline with PG&E, because every equity tier hinges on it.

3. Ask two or three SGIP-registered installers whether equity resiliency funds are open or waitlisted in PG&E's territory right now, since that answer moves month to month.

4. Glance at the CPUC SGIP page for any budget update or rule change before you commit, routine most months but occasionally not.

5. If PG&E calls a Public Safety Power Shutoff this fall, write down the date, since two or more of them are one way into the resiliency tier.

Frequently asked questions

References

• CPUC, Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), State regulator page with the program rules, the equity and equity resiliency tiers, and current status. Government source., www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/electrical-energy/demand-side-management/self-generation-incentive-program.
• CPUC, Fire-Threat Maps, Where you check whether your address sits in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 High Fire-Threat District. Government source., www.cpuc.ca.gov/regulatory-services/safety/risk-assessment/fire-threat-maps-and-fire-safety-rulemaking.
• Self-Generation Incentive Program (statewide program site), Program site with rebate levels by tier and a directory of registered installers who file reservations., www.selfgenerationincentiveprogram.org.
• PG&E, Self-Generation Incentive Program, The administering utility for our territory, with how applications and payments flow locally., www.pge.com/en_US/residential/save-energy-money/savings-solutions-and-rebates/self-generation-incentive-program/self-generation-incentive-program.page.
• PG&E, Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), Utility page on shutoff events and alerts, useful for documenting a PSPS history toward the resiliency tier., www.pge.com/en_US/residential/outages/public-safety-power-shuttoff/learn-about-psps.page.