Where the programs are concentrated
Count of tracked programs touching each technology. Programs commonly cover several, so the bars sum to more than the record count.
Rate plans you must be on — and rate plans that just pay better
Two different things get conflated. Only a handful of incentives require a specific tariff. Far more commonly, the rebate is rate-agnostic but the economics of the equipment collapse or double depending on which schedule you land on. Both are mapped below.
| Incentive | Tariff enrollment required? | What it actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Solar & storage export credit | Yes — mandatory. Net Billing Tariff (NBT / "NEM 3.0") | Every new PG&E, SCE and SDG&E interconnection since 15 Apr 2023 goes on NBT. Exports are paid on the Avoided Cost Calculator — roughly $0.05–$0.08/kWh averaged, against ~$0.30 under NEM 2.0, spread across 576 hourly values that spike on late-summer evenings. You do not choose this; it is the price of interconnecting. |
| ACC Plus adder | Yes — NBT, PG&E or SCE only | A bonus export adder locked for nine years for systems energized in the first five years of NBT (through Apr 2028), larger for CARE/FERA households. SDG&E customers are excluded. Verify current adder values at interconnection — they step down by cohort year. |
| SGIP battery rebates | No specific retail rate, but interconnection under Rule 21 is required | SGIP does not dictate your rate schedule. It does require a permanent, permitted, grid-tied installation and a signed interconnection agreement. Equity Resiliency tiers additionally require Tier 2/3 fire-threat district residency, a PSPS history, or medical-baseline/critical-facility status. |
| Residential EV charger rebates | Usually yes — an EV or electrification rate | SDG&E, PG&E and SCE charger and panel rebates generally require enrollment on an EV or whole-home electrification schedule, and often a separately metered or submetered circuit or a networked charger that reports load. |
| DSGS / ELRP / VPP payments | Yes — program enrollment through an aggregator | You cannot be dual-enrolled in overlapping demand-response programs on the same device. Choosing an aggregator effectively locks your device into one payment stack, so compare before signing. |
| CARE / FERA discounts | No — applies on top of any residential schedule | Income-qualified discount that layers onto whichever schedule you pick, including EV and electrification rates. It also reduces the income-graduated fixed charge. |
| Heat pump & weatherization rebates | No | TECH, HEEHRA, EBD, utility and REN heat pump rebates are rate-agnostic. But a heat pump on a poorly matched schedule can raise a bill even while cutting energy use — the rate choice is where the savings live. |
The residential schedules that matter for electrification
Electrification rates trade a higher fixed charge for materially lower off-peak energy prices. They win when you add load you can shift — an EV, a battery, a heat pump — and lose when you don't.
PG&E
E-ELEC— the electrification rate. Requires an EV, battery storage, or a heat pump for space or water heating. Base services charge plus sharply lower off-peak kWh prices.EV2-A— whole-home EV rate; cheapest midnight–3 p.m. every day including weekends.E-TOU-C/E-TOU-D— general time-of-use, narrower peak windows.BEV-1/BEV-2— commercial EV charging with subscription pricing in place of demand charges.
Southern California Edison
TOU-D-PRIME— the electrification schedule; requires an EV, battery, or electric heat pump.TOU-D-4-9PM/TOU-D-5-8PM— standard residential TOU with differing peak windows.TOU-EV-7 / 8 / 9— commercial charging with demand-charge relief.- SCE's Tariff On-Bill pilot launches in 2026 with ~200 residential customers: the utility funds the heat pump and recovers it through a meter-attached charge capped at annual savings.
SDG&E
EV-TOU-5— whole-home EV rate with a monthly basic service fee and very low super-off-peak pricing.EV-TOU-2— whole-home EV rate with no added fixed fee.TOU-DR1/TOU-DR-P— standard and peak-day-pricing residential.- SDG&E is excluded from the ACC Plus export adder — solar payback math differs materially from PG&E and SCE.
Bill-affordability layers
- CARE — ~30–35% electric discount, income at or below 200% FPL.
- FERA — ~18% electric discount for 3+ person households up to 250% FPL.
- Income-graduated fixed charge (2026): roughly $24.15/month standard, $12 FERA, $6 CARE, with usage-based rates lowered to compensate — designed to favor electrification.
- Medical Baseline — extra allowance plus PSPS notification priority; also a gateway to SGIP Equity Resiliency.
- California Climate Credit — automatic cap-and-trade bill credit twice a year; no application.
Ways to sell power, capacity, or flexibility back
Five distinct revenue mechanisms, frequently confused with one another. Exporting energy, getting paid for a dispatch event, selling capacity into the wholesale market, and hosting someone else's system under a PPA are separate transactions with separate rules — and some of them cannot be combined on the same device.
| Mechanism | Who runs it | What it pays | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Billing Tariff (NBT) | CPUC / PG&E, SCE, SDG&E | Hourly avoided-cost export rates, ~$0.05–$0.08/kWh average across 576 values; highest on Aug–Sep evenings. Plus the ACC Plus adder for PG&E/SCE cohorts through Apr 2028. | All new IOU-interconnected solar. Batteries shift export into the high-value evening hours — this is why storage attach rates jumped after NBT. |
| Virtual & aggregated net metering (VNEM / NEM-A / NEM-V) | IOUs under CPUC tariffs | Allocates one system's generation credits across multiple tenant or parcel meters. | Multifamily owners, campuses, farms with multiple meters. The mechanism SOMAH relies on to push credits to tenants. |
| Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) | California Energy Commission (Olivine) | Option 1 pays $2/kWh of verified incremental load reduction; storage VPP aggregations earn a 30% capacity bonus in program year 2026. Options dispatch 4–9 p.m. or 4–10 p.m. on emergency notices. | Battery owners via an aggregator, bidirectional EVSE, large flexible loads. 2026 caveat: budget limits confine Option 3 storage VPPs largely to aggregations that participated in Oct 2025, except bidirectional-EVSE fleets. |
| Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) | CPUC / IOUs | Event-based payments (historically around $2/kWh) for load reduction during grid emergencies, across sub-programs A1–A6. | Residential aggregations, commercial and agricultural customers. Usually accessed through a third-party aggregator rather than directly. |
| Utility & third-party VPPs | Sunrun, Tesla, Swell, Leap, Renew Home/OhmConnect, SMUD | Enrollment bonuses plus per-event or per-kWh payments; SMUD adds roughly $1,200 for storage paired with solar in its 2026 VPP. | Homeowners with batteries who want a managed path into DSGS/ELRP/wholesale without contracting directly. |
| Wholesale market participation | CAISO, via DRAM and aggregation rules | Capacity and energy revenue at market prices; requires a scheduling coordinator. | Commercial, industrial and large aggregated portfolios. Not a practical retail-customer path on its own. |
| Feed-in tariffs — ReMAT & BioMAT | CPUC / IOUs | Standard-offer contracts for small renewable generators up to 3 MW (ReMAT) and bioenergy (BioMAT), priced by a market-adjusting mechanism. | Agricultural, landfill, dairy digester and small commercial generators — not rooftop residential. |
| Power purchase agreements & leases | Private developers | You host the array; the developer owns it, monetizes the §48E credit and depreciation, and sells you power at a contracted rate. | Nonprofits and affordable-housing owners without tax appetite — though elective pay now lets tax-exempt entities claim §48E as cash directly, which often beats a PPA. |
| Green tariffs & community solar | CPUC / IOUs / CCAs | Not a sale — a discount. The DAC Green Tariff and Community Solar Green Tariff deliver a ~20% bill discount from off-site solar. | Renters and anyone who cannot host a system. No equipment, no roof, no credit check. |
| Demand response for business | IOUs | Capacity Bidding Program, Base Interruptible Program, Peak Day Pricing — capacity payments or bill credits for curtailable load. | Commercial and industrial sites with process load, thermal mass, or on-site generation. |
Federal tax position, as of August 2026
Status reflects the OBBBA termination schedule. Anything marked closed may still be claimable on a prior-year return if the property was placed in service inside the window.
| Provision | Value | Status | Notes for California projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| §48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit | 30% base with prevailing wage & apprenticeship; +10% domestic content; +10% energy community; +10–20% low-income bonus allocation | Open | The workhorse for commercial, multifamily and nonprofit solar and storage. Projects under 1 MWac get the full rate without meeting PWA. Foreign-entity-of-concern sourcing rules now apply — diligence your supply chain early. |
| §45Y Clean Electricity Production Credit | Per-kWh credit over 10 years, PWA-scaled, with the same bonus structure | Open | Elected instead of §48E. Generally favors high-capacity-factor generation over storage-heavy behind-the-meter projects. |
| Elective pay (direct pay) & transferability | Cash payment in lieu of credit; or sale of the credit for cash | Open | The single most important change for California's public and nonprofit sector. Cities, school districts, tribes, water agencies, churches and affordable-housing nonprofits can monetize §48E without a tax-equity partner. Pre-filing registration with the IRS is mandatory. |
| MACRS + bonus depreciation | 5-year accelerated recovery; 100% first-year bonus depreciation | Open | OBBBA made 100% bonus depreciation permanent for qualifying property acquired after 19 Jan 2025. Basis is reduced by half the ITC claimed. |
| §179 expensing | Immediate expensing of qualifying HVAC and building systems | Open | Available for commercial rooftop HVAC replacements including heat pumps — often overlooked next to the energy credits. |
| §179D Commercial Buildings Deduction | Up to roughly $5.81/sq ft, indexed | Closing | Eliminated for property whose construction begins after 30 Jun 2026. Projects that started before that date can still qualify. Designers of public buildings may still receive allocated deductions on qualifying jobs. |
| §45L New Energy Efficient Home Credit | $2,500 ENERGY STAR / $5,000 Zero Energy Ready per dwelling unit | Ended 30 Jun 2026 | Units had to be certified and sold or leased by 30 Jun 2026. This removed a major stacking layer for all-electric multifamily pro formas — check whether CEC's BUILD incentives can partly fill the gap. |
| §25D Residential Clean Energy Credit | 30% of solar, battery, geothermal cost, uncapped | Ended 31 Dec 2025 | No credit for property installed after 31 Dec 2025. Residential solar economics in California now rest on SGIP, DAC-SASH, utility programs and self-consumption value alone. |
| §25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit | Up to $3,200/yr — $2,000 heat pumps, $1,200 envelope and panels | Ended 31 Dec 2025 | Not available for property placed in service after 31 Dec 2025. |
| §30C Alternative Fuel Refueling Property | 30% up to $1,000 residential; up to $100,000 per item commercial in eligible tracts | Ended 30 Jun 2026 | Required placed-in-service by 30 Jun 2026. Commercial charging economics now lean on CALeVIP, EnergIIZE and utility make-ready programs. |
| §30D / §25E / §45W vehicle credits | $7,500 new, $4,000 used, up to $40,000 commercial | Ended 30 Sep 2025 | Vehicles had to be acquired on or before 30 Sep 2025. California's Clean Cars 4 All is now the primary vehicle incentive for income-qualified buyers. |
California tax treatment
California does not mirror the federal energy credits, and never offered a state solar income-tax credit. The state's tax-side support is structural: assessment relief and sales-tax exclusions.
Active Solar Energy System exclusion (R&T §73)
Qualifying solar installations are excluded from property-tax reassessment — the added value is not taxed. This sunsets 1 Jan 2027. SB 710 (Oct 2025) protects systems installed before that date: they stay excluded for as long as the current owner holds the property. Projects still in construction need to reach completion and, for larger systems, CAISO-active status inside 2026.
No state income-tax credit
There is no California analogue to §25D or §48E. State support arrives as rebates, grants and tariffs instead. Rebates received are generally not taxable income to a homeowner but typically reduce the depreciable or credit basis of a commercial system — coordinate with your tax preparer before assuming full stacking.
CAEATFA Sales & Use Tax Exclusion
Full exclusion from state sales and use tax on qualified manufacturing equipment for advanced transportation, alternative energy, and recycling projects. Aimed at manufacturers, not building owners, but relevant to industrial electrification capital plans.
Local exemptions & fee relief
Many jurisdictions waive or cap permit fees for solar, storage, heat pumps and EV charging, and SB 379 requires larger cities and counties to offer automated instant permitting for residential solar and storage (SolarAPP+). Check the building department before budgeting soft costs.
Financing, when the rebate doesn't cover it
GoGreen Home Energy Financing
State credit enhancement through CAEATFA lets participating lenders offer lower-rate, longer-term unsecured loans for efficiency and electrification in 1–4 unit homes, with approval paths for thinner credit files. Eligibility now expressly includes reconstruction after a declared disaster.
GoGreen Business Energy Financing
Credit-enhanced loans and leases for small business and commercial energy projects, sized well into the millions, covering efficiency, electrification, storage and EV infrastructure.
C-PACE
Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy finances up to 100% of eligible costs, repaid on the property tax bill and transferable on sale. Widely available across California counties. Residential PACE has largely wound down after consumer-protection reforms — verify availability locally before relying on it.
Tariff On-Bill
SCE's 2026 pilot puts the utility's capital into the heat pump and recovers it through a meter-attached charge capped at the customer's annual savings — no debt, no credit check, and the obligation transfers with occupancy. Small pilot for now; watch it as the template for renter-accessible electrification.
What a contractor must hold to work these programs
Three separate layers stack here, and mixing them up is the most common reason a rebate application is rejected. A state licence makes the work legal. A program enrolment makes the work claimable. A third-party certification is what a specific program requires on top of both.
Layer 1 — CSLB licence classifications
Issued by the Contractors State License Board. Any job over $500 in combined labour and materials requires one. Licensees carry a $25,000 bond and workers' compensation coverage.
| Class | Scope | Where it's required |
|---|---|---|
B | General Building | Whole-home retrofits and new construction involving two or more unrelated trades. Can self-perform or subcontract solar and HVAC. |
C-10 | Electrical | Panel upgrades, service changes, branch circuits, EV charger installation, battery storage, and photovoltaics. The most broadly useful licence in electrification. |
C-20 | Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating & Air Conditioning | Heat pump HVAC. Nearly every residential heat pump rebate names C-20 explicitly. New circuits for the equipment require a C-10 partner unless the firm also holds C-10 or B. |
C-36 | Plumbing | Heat pump water heaters, gas line removal and capping, condensate and drain work. |
C-46 | Solar | Solar thermal, solar pool heating and photovoltaics of any size. Four years of journey-level experience plus law and trade exams. |
C-4 · C-38 | Boiler/Hot-Water Heating · Refrigeration | Commercial hydronic heat pump plants, VRF, and process refrigeration heat recovery. |
C-2 · C-17 · C-39 | Insulation & Acoustical · Glazing · Roofing | Weatherization, window replacement, and the roof work that precedes most solar jobs. |
C-7 | Low Voltage | Controls, networked charger communications, submetering and monitoring. |
A | General Engineering | Ground-mount arrays, trenching, and utility-side infrastructure. |
| HIS registration | Home Improvement Salesperson | Anyone selling residential solar or home-improvement contracts door-to-door or in-home must be registered with CSLB under a licensed contractor. A recurring solar consumer-protection enforcement issue. |
Layer 2 — Worker-level certification and labour standards
| Credential | Issued by | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| California Electrician Certification — General, Residential, Fire/Life Safety, Voice-Data-Video, Nonresidential Lighting Technician | Dept. of Industrial Relations, Div. of Labor Standards Enforcement | Individual electricians working for a C-10 must be state-certified or registered apprentices. Distinct from the company's licence. |
| EPA Section 608 (Type I/II/III/Universal) and 609 | US EPA | Legally required for anyone handling refrigerant. Non-negotiable for heat pump work. |
| A2L refrigerant safety training | Manufacturers, ACCA, ESCO, unions | The industry transition to mildly flammable A2L refrigerants changes storage, brazing, leak detection and code requirements. Increasingly demanded by manufacturers for warranty validity. |
| EPA Lead Renovation, Repair & Painting (RRP) | US EPA / CDPH | Mandatory for any disturbance of painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing — which covers a large share of California's weatherization and panel-upgrade stock. |
| DIR contractor registration & certified payroll | Dept. of Industrial Relations | Required on any public works project. Prevailing wage applies to most publicly funded installations, including many grant-funded school, municipal and affordable-housing jobs. |
| Federal prevailing wage & apprenticeship (PWA) | US DOL / IRS | The condition for the full 30% §48E rate on projects of 1 MWac and above: DOL wage determinations for all laborers and mechanics, plus a qualifying share of total labour hours performed by registered apprentices. Miss it and the credit drops to 6%. Under 1 MWac, exempt. |
Layer 3 — Program-specific certifications
HERS Rater — CalCERTS or CHEERS
An independent, registered third party who field-verifies Title 24 measures: duct leakage, refrigerant charge, airflow, fan watt draw, quality insulation installation. A rater cannot verify their own company's work. Required on the great majority of California HVAC change-outs and new construction.
Related: CEA (Certified Energy Analyst) and CEPE (Certified Energy Plans Examiner) from CABEC for compliance documentation.
ATTCP — Acceptance Test Technicians
Title 24 Part 6 requires certified acceptance testing on nonresidential systems. CALCTP-AT covers lighting controls and certifies C-10 contractors and state-certified general electricians; MCxATTCP providers (NEBB, TABB, AABC) cover mechanical. All compliance documents for permits filed on or after 1 Jan 2026 must use approved 2025 Energy Code software.
BPI — Building Performance Institute
Building Analyst Technician and Professional, Envelope Professional, Heating Professional, Healthy Housing Principles, Multifamily Building Analyst. The default credential for whole-home and weatherization programs including ESA, LIWP, and much of the IRA-funded work. Some programs accept BPI or HERS as equivalent — read the handbook.
NABCEP
PV Installation Professional (PVIP), PV Design Specialist, PV Installer Specialist, Commissioning & Maintenance, System Inspector, and the Energy Storage Installation Professional (ESIP). Not required by California law, but named by many utility, municipal and commercial procurement specs, and increasingly by insurers.
NATE and ACCA design standards
NATE certification is common in HVAC quality-installation requirements. Separately, most heat pump rebate programs require ACCA Manual J load calculation, Manual S equipment selection and Manual D duct design — submitted, not just performed. Rule-of-thumb sizing is the single most common rebate rejection.
Program enrolment as a credential
TECH Clean California, HEEHRA, EBD Direct Install, ESA and SGIP all require the contractor to be an enrolled participating contractor with a signed agreement and a data-reporting obligation, over and above any licence. Enrolment is often the actual bottleneck. CA-TREC exists to fund the training that gets contractors through it.
Equipment listing requirements
Equipment must appear on the relevant CEC list — the Appliance Efficiency Database, the Solar Equipment Lists for modules and inverters, and the Energy Storage Equipment list — plus UL certification (UL 1741 SA/SB for inverters, UL 9540/9540A for storage). Installing an unlisted model voids the rebate regardless of performance.
Labour and hiring conditions
SOMAH carries job-training and local-hiring obligations alongside its incentive. DAC-SASH is delivered through GRID Alternatives with a workforce-development model. Several CEC grant programs attach community-benefit or targeted-hire commitments to the award. Budget for these — they are contract terms, not aspirations.
Green building certifications
Not licences, but frequently the trigger for an incentive tier or a density bonus: GreenPoint Rater (Build It Green), LEED AP, ENERGY STAR Certified Homes, DOE Zero Energy Ready Home partner, PHIUS/Passive House CPHC, and compliance with CALGreen (Title 24 Part 11) beyond the mandatory measures.
Assembling a stack that actually closes
These programs were designed independently and interact badly. This is the order that avoids the common failure modes — reserving funds before eligibility is proven, disqualifying yourself by installing early, or double-dipping into a clawback.
Fix the income tier first
Almost every high-value program keys off one of four thresholds: 80% AMI, 150% AMI, CARE/FERA eligibility (200%/250% FPL), or residence in a disadvantaged community census tract. Determine yours before shortlisting anything — it typically moves the total available by an order of magnitude, and it decides whether you are shopping for rebates or for no-cost direct installation.
Check for a no-cost direct-install path before applying for rebates
If the household qualifies for ESA, LIWP, EBD Direct Install or DAC-SASH, that path delivers the work at no cost and is strictly better than any rebate. Applying for a rebate program first can complicate later direct-install enrolment on the same measure.
Reserve funds before signing anything
Most California programs are reservation-based: you apply, receive a reservation, then install. Install first and you are usually ineligible, with no appeal. This is where HEEHRA and TECH applicants most often lose money — and with single-family funds now on waitlists, getting into the queue early is the whole game.
Pull the permit — always
Unpermitted work disqualifies essentially every rebate, fails the HERS verification that Title 24 requires, and creates a disclosure problem at sale. Automated instant permitting under SB 379 makes this fast for residential solar and storage in larger jurisdictions.
Sequence the panel and the envelope before the equipment
Load calculations for a heat pump depend on the envelope; the service capacity determines whether a panel upgrade or a load-management device is needed. Weatherize and assess the service first, then size the equipment. It shrinks the equipment, which shrinks the cost the incentive has to cover — and panel-upgrade adders exist precisely to be claimed alongside an appliance, not on their own.
Stack vertically: federal → state → utility/CCA → REN → local
Different funding sources generally stack. Two programs drawing on the same source usually do not: ratepayer-funded utility and REN rebates for the same measure often conflict, and IRA-funded HOMES and HEEHRA cannot both pay for the same measure in the same home. Read each program's stacking table — SOMAH and several others publish one.
Confirm the rate plan at the end, then switch
Once the equipment is in, run the bill analysis and move to the schedule that fits the new load shape. Utilities offer rate comparison tools and typically a one-year bill-protection window after switching. Skipping this step is how a correctly installed heat pump ends up raising a bill.
Keep the evidence package
Permits and final inspection sign-off, HERS registry certificates, invoices with model and serial numbers, AHRI certificates, load calculations, the contractor's licence number, and the interconnection agreement. Programs audit after payment and can claw back. For §48E, add the PWA payroll records and domestic-content certifications, and complete IRS pre-filing registration before the return is due.
Renters — the shortest list, and the honest version of it
Most electrification money flows to whoever owns the equipment. Four paths do not require that.
Green tariffs and community solar
The DAC Green Tariff and Community Solar Green Tariff deliver roughly a 20% bill discount from off-site solar with no equipment, no roof and no landlord involvement. The single most accessible renewable option for a tenant.
ESA and LIWP as a tenant
Both serve renters directly, with landlord consent for measures that touch the building. Multifamily pathways exist specifically so tenants are not excluded, and tenants in SOMAH buildings receive bill credits from the building's array.
Plug-in and portable measures
Induction hobs, window-unit heat pumps, portable power stations that meet program rules, and efficient appliances that move with you. CalMTA's Room Heat Pump and Induction Cooking market-transformation initiatives are aimed squarely at this gap.
Rate optimization and bill assistance
CARE, FERA, Medical Baseline, the automatic California Climate Credit, and choosing the right TOU schedule cost nothing and require no permission from a property owner.