The State of Energy in California: How We’re Moving Forward - Storage

The State of Energy in California: How We’re Moving Forward - Storage

By Danny Ehinger, Elect Electric

California’s electrical grid has been under pressure for years—and many San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria homeowners are rightfully concerned. We’re moving full speed ahead toward an all-electric future: electric vehicles, stoves, water heaters, heat pumps—you name it. We’re doing this to lower our carbon footprint and meet California’s 2045 carbon neutrality goal. But the big question keeps coming up: do we have enough power?

The short answer is—we’ve done a lot of the hard work already. But now, we’re hitting the next hurdle.

Let’s back up. Before 2016, I was attending trainings and considering whether Elect Electric should offer solar installations. It was the hot new thing, and the state was offering major incentives through the California Solar Initiative (CSI), which PG&E and other utilities helped administer. Rebates covered up to 50% of system costs in the early years, aiming to reduce the need to build new power plants by encouraging rooftop solar generation.

I chose not to add solar installs to our services. Why? There’s not much electrical work involved—most of it is mechanical: racking systems, roofing, permitting, and layout. Plus, working on roofs added more liability than I was comfortable with( Today with solar demand slowing we are again looking at Solar and will start offering it to clients as a part of a whole electrification package). Still, I kept a close eye on the utility companies’ plans.

PG&E and the state made a strategic choice. Instead of building expensive new power plants, they invested in helping homeowners go solar. That solar generation counted as “new generation”—spread across thousands of homes instead of centralized in one place.

They knew adoption would come in waves: early adopters who believed in the mission, incentive-seekers who jumped on board when it made financial sense, and late adopters who waited, missed the major incentives, and now face higher utility costs—especially after NEM 3.0 reduced solar export rates in 2023.

Fast forward to today. That strategy worked. California now produces so much solar power during the day that we often have too much—sometimes curtailing production because there’s nowhere for it to go. But solar doesn’t generate power at night, creating the ‘duck curve’ challenge. From 4 PM to 9 PM—when everyone gets home, cooks, and runs the AC—the grid scrambles. Gas-fired power plants ramp up fast, which is expensive, inefficient, and why we see peak rates during those hours.

We don’t have a power generation problem anymore. We have a power storage problem.

That’s the next frontier: California energy storage batteries.

The conversation is shifting. If you have solar, your system isn’t doing much after sunset unless you store that energy in a home battery. If you don’t have solar, batteries can still help—charge them during the day when electricity is cheaper and use that stored power at night to avoid peak rates.

Now, there are new incentives from the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP)—up to $1,000/kWh for battery systems—especially in areas prone to wildfires, public safety power shutoffs (PSPS), or with medical needs requiring reliable backup power.

At Elect Electric, we’re certified installers for Tesla Powerwall and Franklin Home Power. We’ll walk you through available rebates and install the right system for your San Luis Obispo or Santa Maria home.

Here’s the hopeful part: California’s grid isn’t broken. It’s evolving.

We’ve laid the foundation with solar. Now we need to finish the job with storage to build a resilient, clean energy system—one that works day and night.

Ready to explore home battery systems? Call us at 805-438-4357 or book a free Virtual Project Planning session (SLO & Santa Maria residents). We’ll help you power forward!

About the Authors:

This blog post was originally written by Daniel Ehinger, an experienced electrician dedicated to promoting electrical safety and best practices. The content was edited and enhanced by ChatGPT and/or Grok, who provided valuable insights and improvements to ensure clarity and readability.