PG&E and Google Just Launched a $5,000 Battery Heat Pump Deal for Bay Area Homeowners

In 2026, your home battery is no longer just a backup. It is a revenue source.

That idea just got a concrete test case. On September 3, 2026, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Rewiring America, and Google launched a residential virtual power plant called SHARE (Smart Home Assets for Reliability and Efficiency) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here is what it does, who qualifies, and what it means for homeowners who already own solar and storage.

What SHARE actually is

SHARE is a virtual power plant. It aggregates thousands of small, distributed energy resources (home batteries, smart thermostats, battery-enabled heat pumps) and treats them as a single flexible resource the utility can dispatch during peak grid stress.

The program will enroll nearly 21,000 existing flexible devices across Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Those devices belong to customers of three companies: Tesla, Sunrun, and Renew Home. PG&E will operate the VPP through its DERMS platform and issue dispatch instructions.

According to pv magazine USA, PG&E and Rewiring America expect SHARE to reach approximately 12 MW of capacity by 2028, including new battery-enabled heat pumps and existing distributed energy resources.

Who can get a heat pump and how much they save

Eligible homeowners in Santa Clara and Alameda counties will be able to receive new battery-enabled Carrier heat pumps. The cost of equipment and installation is partially subsidized by Google.

A Fast Company report indicates customers will receive a discount of at least $5,000 toward a heat pump installation, with $10,000 available to the first 25 households to sign up.

What existing battery owners earn

Homeowners who already own a home battery (Tesla Powerwall, Sunrun storage, Renew Home storage) and are part of the Sunrun/Tesla/Renew pool will be invited to join the program. They can receive ongoing incentives in exchange for letting PG&E dispatch their battery during grid emergencies.

As a baseline for what this looks like today: Powerwall owners enrolled in Tesla's existing Virtual Power Plant partnership with PG&E's Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) are compensated with $2.00 for every additional kilowatt-hour their battery delivers to the grid during a dispatched event. That can total up to $350 per year depending on the number of grid emergencies.

SHARE participation incentives will be paid to customers separately from their electric bills. The exact amount will depend on technology, eligibility, and enrollment wave.

The part that changes how grid programs are funded

Here is what makes this different from every other demand-response or VPP program before it.

Google is funding the entire program. That means Google pays for customer incentives, technology deployment, and program delivery. In a typical utility demand-response program, the utility recovers those costs from ratepayers through a tariff or a regulatory proceeding.

Google has a direct interest in Northern California grid capacity. The company buys large volumes of power for data centers, and PG&E frames SHARE as a way to unlock grid capacity for growth.

This raises an important precedent question: if a hyperscaler can fund a utility demand-response program outright, other load-growth markets will likely see the same offer. That shifts who sets the terms of a grid program away from the regulator and toward the counterparty who pays.

What to watch

PG&E did not publish a megawatt capacity figure in its announcement. It also did not publish a per-event load reduction target or a baseline method. Those three numbers are what determine whether a demand-response resource is worth anything to a grid planner.

The program is expected to support the grid as early as fall 2026 and runs through 2027. Initial findings are expected to be shared in late 2026 or early 2027.

What this means for you

If you are a Bay Area homeowner with an existing home battery or are considering a battery-enabled heat pump, this program is worth tracking. Reach out to your storage provider (Tesla, Sunrun, or Renew Home) to see if you are in the eligible pool. If you are in Santa Clara or Alameda counties, ask about the heat pump subsidy directly.

If you are not in the Bay Area, pay attention to the precedent. A Google-funded VPP in one utility territory is a template. Expect to see similar privately funded programs in other high-demand regions.

Sources

• PG&E, Rewiring America and Google Launch First-of-its-Kind Virtual Power Plant (PG&E Investor Relations, September 3, 2026)
• PG&E and Rewiring America announce Google-funded virtual power plant program (pv magazine USA, September 4, 2026)
• PG&E Enrolls 21,000 Home Devices in a Google-Funded Virtual Power Plant (MGRID, September 4, 2026)