What the Ava Community Energy home battery rebate pays
The Ava Community Energy home battery rebate pays customers in Alameda County and San Joaquin County to share power stored in a home battery, backed by an 11.25 million dollar budget, Utility Dive reports. Ava Community Energy is an energy provider that customers in these 2 counties can choose instead of their local utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, which still delivers the electricity over its lines. On April 9, 2026, Ava launched the program, called SmartHome Battery, and enrollment runs first come, first served until the budget is used up, Ava states.
A customer picks how much of their battery to share. Ava lets a customer choose to share 40%, 60% or 80% of their battery capacity, and pays an upfront rebate for that shared portion, its own program page states.
How the rebate rate differs for income qualified customers
The rebate rate is not the same for every customer. A market rate customer earns 90 dollars for every kilowatt hour of shared capacity, while an income qualified customer earns 500 dollars per kilowatt hour, Ava states, a rate roughly 5.6 times higher, an amount this article calculated by dividing 500 by 90.
500 dollars per kilowatt hour is roughly 5.6 times the 90 dollar rate for market rate customers, a figure this article calculated by dividing 500 by 90, not a ratio Ava itself states.
Show the numbers
| Market rate | 90 |
| Income qualified | 500 |
What the ongoing monthly payment adds up to
Sharing also pays an ongoing amount every 3 months for 5 years. The monthly participation payment Ava pays is 3 dollars for every kilowatt hour shared, its program page states. For a 10 kilowatt hour battery, sharing 40% pays 144 dollars a year, sharing 60% pays 216 dollars a year, and sharing 80% pays 288 dollars a year, a calculation this article made from that 3 dollar rate. Ava confirms the top tier directly, stating in its own program page for residents that a customer who shares 80% of a 10 kilowatt hour battery earns 24 dollars a month, paid as 72 dollars every quarter.
These figures assume a 10 kilowatt hour battery and are this article own arithmetic on the 3 dollar per kilowatt hour monthly rate Ava states, confirmed against the 80% row, which matches Ava own stated example of 24 dollars a month exactly.
Show the numbers
| 40% shared | 144 |
| 60% shared | 216 |
| 80% shared | 288 |
This program was designed to help offset legislative changes to the residential solar industry.
Howard Chang, chief executive officer of Ava Community Energy. Source 1.
The fine print behind the rebate
Ava also limits how often it can call on a shared battery. Tesla batteries face a limit of 80 hours of grid events a year, while every other battery brand faces a limit of 80 separate events a year, both within a daily dispatch window of 2 hours on weekdays, its program page states. A participant who delivers less than 80% of their nominated capacity across 5 events in 1 calendar year may be unenrolled and stop receiving payments. Any customer whose payments total more than 2,000 dollars in a year must file a W9 tax form.
The statewide policy pushing programs like this
The rebate sits inside a wider push across California. State Senator Josh Becker introduced Senate Bill 913 on March 24, 2026, and it passed the California Senate floor on May 28, 2026. The bill would let home batteries and other customer owned devices compete for resource adequacy capacity, the category regulators use to judge whether the grid has enough proven supply to meet demand, on the same basis as power plants. California adds about 8,000 home battery installations and about 100 megawatts of capacity every month, Utility Dive reports, matched independently by the office of Senator Becker.
Today, too many clean energy resources Californians already own like home batteries, electric vehicles, and smart thermostats are not being utilized because outdated rules prevent them from competing fairly.
Josh Becker, California state senator and author of Senate Bill 913. Source 5.