Sunrun and PG&E Forge Innovative Partnership to Boost Local Grid Resilience

On February 24, 2026, Sunrun Inc. (Nasdaq: RUN), recognized as America’s largest provider of home battery storage and solar energy solutions, announced the successful completion of a pioneering partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). This collaboration has resulted in the creation of a distributed power plant that leverages the energy stored in residential solar battery systems, providing essential support for local grid stability in Northern California.

The initiative has seen over 1,000 Sunrun customers participate in this groundbreaking program, exporting energy from their storage-plus-solar systems to alleviate grid constraints. The primary objective of this innovative partnership is to help PG&E defer costly distribution upgrades while simultaneously generating net savings for utility customers.

Mary Powell, CEO of Sunrun, emphasized the significance of this program, stating, “Sunrun’s groundbreaking program with PG&E shows that distributed power plants can help communities avoid the high cost of adding more poles and wires to accommodate load growth.” Powell pointed out the program's success in delivering precise location-specific load relief, showcasing Sunrun’s unique ability to scale both large and bespoke distributed power plant initiatives with diverse offtakers.

The distributed power plant initiative is part of PG&E’s Seasonal Aggregation of Versatile Energy (SAVE) program. Following a testing phase from April to June 2025, the Local PeakShift Power program demonstrated remarkable efficacy, dispatching energy more than 50 times from July to October 2025. This amounted to over 1,200 dispatching hours during peak demand periods when local electricity needs were close to system capacity.

Sunrun customers who were enrolled in the program lived near or were connected to over two dozen constrained power lines and substations within PG&E’s service area. Tom Weldon, a Sunrun customer from San Jose, expressed the personal and communal benefits of this initiative, stating, “Being able to provide energy to my local neighborhood just makes a lot of sense. When heat waves arrive, we know that our batteries are going to help out when the grid is stressed.”

A post-season program evaluation conducted by Demand Side Analytics revealed that the battery groupings from Sunrun closely adhered to PG&E’s dispatching instructions. The evaluation noted that the batteries maintained electrical loads below operational limits at all specified locations. This was achieved through advanced machine learning, which enabled tailored dispatching based on forecasted weather and daily load demands. Remarkably, the batteries exhibited a dispatch predictability and consistency rate of nearly 99%.

Powell further highlighted the program’s broader implications, stating, “Going into this project, we already knew that distributed energy resources could help meet systemwide peak electricity demand and put broad downward pressure on peak prices. This program demonstrated that dispatching home batteries can also be a targeted tool to help avoid costly upgrades on the distribution network.”

Patti Poppe, CEO of PG&E Corporation, acknowledged the collaboration, remarking, “Working with partners like Sunrun is a win for our customers, our electric grid and California as a whole. This program shows how customers can help improve local grid reliability as we support the state’s growing need for energy.”

Given the enthusiastic response from customers, PG&E expanded Sunrun’s initial participation in the program from 600 to over 1,000 enrolled customers. Each participating Sunrun customer received a compensation of $150 per battery for contributing their stored solar energy to local communities. This initiative not only supports immediate energy needs but also aligns with long-term goals set by the California Energy Commission to enhance load-shifting capabilities and local reliability.

With a robust portfolio of over 217,000 residential battery systems nationwide, Sunrun is well-positioned to support non-wires alternatives and system-wide distributed power plant initiatives. The integration of Sunrun’s grid services platform with a flexible subscription model allows for adaptable customer enrollment across various programs, maximizing value for the company, its customers, and the overall grid.

As Sunrun continues to innovate and expand its services, the partnership with PG&E serves as a promising model for future collaborations aimed at enhancing grid resilience and efficiency in the face of growing energy demands.