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Pacific Gas & Electric said the milestone comes during an industry shift from “a one‑way grid to an interactive system where customer energy resources are increasingly part of the solution.”
PG&E has invested in “grid automation, advanced forecasting, streamlined interconnection, and the growing integration of solar paired with battery storage,” the company said in its release. “These efforts signal a broader industry shift: from a one‑way grid to an interactive system where customer energy resources are increasingly part of the solution,” it said.
PG&E customers have access to California rebates like the Self-Generation Incentive Program, which subsidizes the installation of residential storage or solar-plus-storage, as well as credit rates for solar generation under the state’s net metering program. California is the top state for residential solar in the U.S. and for overall solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Residential solar can also offer relief from the state’s high electric rates, and solar plus storage can provide backup power during public safety power shutoffs, which the state’s utilities deploy to mitigate the risk from wildfires and extreme weather events. PG&E has used PSPS 31 times in the past seven years, the utility said in an April report.
In a 2019 report, SEIA said that increasing consumer interest in residential solar, and solar-plus-storage, was particularly strong in California due in part to “dissatisfaction with California utilities.”
“This disaffection has a long history but most recently stems from Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) which have left hundreds of thousands of utility customers without electricity, often for days at a time,” SEIA said. “These developments have combined to renew a latent demand in solar and resiliency options in California.”
Surpassing 1 million solar interconnections “underscores a broader transformation underway in California’s energy system: The grid of the future will be more distributed, more digital, and more participatory,” PG&E said. “And customer‑owned solar, especially when paired with storage and connected through virtual power plants, will play a central role in delivering clean, reliable energy at scale.”
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The Southwest Power Pool service aims to help data centers and other large loads get online quickly, but they can have their service cut when grid conditions are tight.
The grid operator urged states to develop rules to shield other ratepayers from data center-driven costs, but analysts said it remains unclear how a reliability auction’s costs could be allocated only to hyperscalers.
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Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
The Southwest Power Pool service aims to help data centers and other large loads get online quickly, but they can have their service cut when grid conditions are tight.
The grid operator urged states to develop rules to shield other ratepayers from data center-driven costs, but analysts said it remains unclear how a reliability auction’s costs could be allocated only to hyperscalers.
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