Home battery systems company Haven Energy and California electricity supplier Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) have partnered to provide homeowners in the state with battery energy storage systems (BESS) at no purchase or installation cost.
The Battery Bonus Connect programme will be available for approximately 300 homeowners, funded through California’s US$280 million Self-Generation Incentive Program Residential Solar & Storage Equity (SGIP RSSE) initiative.
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Clean Energy Alliance is a community choice aggregation (CCA) electricity provider to seven cities in California, operating under a non-profit model as an alternative to the state’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs) while utilising the IOUs’ transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure.
Those approved for the SGIP rebate will receive a BESS and complete installation at no out-of-pocket cost and with no additional monthly payments to their electricity bill.
Funding is being awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
The homeowners who receive a system will also participate in a CEA-managed virtual power plant (VPP), operated by Haven. The company says that approximately 20% of the battery’s capacity will always be reserved for backup power.
To qualify for the programme, a homeowner must be a CEA residential customer, participate in CEA’s PeakSmart Savers program, own their home and have a household income at or below 80% of the area median income.
Energy-Storage.news covered the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) launch of the US$280 million SGIP RSSE initiative earlier this month.
The programme integrates its financial incentives with tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to fully fund battery storage installations. It targets low-income residential customers of investor-owned utilities (IOUs), publicly-owned utilities and community choice aggregators (CCAs).
Similar to this most recent announcement, Haven’s VPP from last year saw 300 single-family homes participate.
While not confirmed for the SGIP VPP, this programme used 20kWh battery systems, totalling 4.8MWh capacity.
Jeff Chapin, chief product officer and co-founder of Haven Energy, said of the SGIP and CEA programme:
“By installing and aggregating the customer-sited battery systems into a VPP, we will also reduce grid congestion, lower our reliance on fossil fuels, and accelerate California’s optimisation of renewables. Rather than sending surplus solar electricity to the grid in the middle of the day, we will store that electricity in the battery systems and discharge it during evening peak demand, reducing the need for natural gas generation.”
