Sunrun and PG&E Deploy 1,000 Home Batteries to Ease Northern California Grid Strain — Sunrun Inc.

Event summary

Sunrun and PG&E completed a pilot program dispatching energy from 1,000 home battery systems to relieve grid constraints in Northern California.
The program, part of PG&E’s SAVE initiative, dispatched energy over 1,200 hours from July to October 2025, avoiding costly distribution upgrades.
Sunrun customers earned $150 per battery for participating, while the program demonstrated 99% dispatch accuracy.
PG&E expanded participation from 600 to 1,000 customers due to high demand.

The big picture

This collaboration marks a strategic shift toward leveraging distributed energy resources to defer expensive grid upgrades, aligning with California’s push for decentralized energy solutions. Sunrun’s ability to aggregate and dispatch home batteries at scale positions it as a key player in the evolving utility-customer dynamic, where residential storage increasingly supports grid reliability.

What we're watching

Scalability: Whether Sunrun can replicate this model across other constrained grids, given its 217,000 residential battery systems nationwide.
Regulatory Alignment: How California’s load-shifting goals will shape future partnerships between storage providers and utilities.
Customer Incentives: The long-term impact of financial incentives on consumer participation in grid-support programs.