Heat Pump Water Heater Incentive Funding Updates for PG&E, SMUD, and Municipality Service Areas
February 2, 2024, Oakland, California
Due to consumer demand for heat pump water heater incentives, TECH Clean California is making some critical updates to its heat pump water heater incentive budget and availability. Effective February 2, 2024, the immediate impacts are for single family market rate sales in Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), and other electric municipality service areas.
Summary of Critical Updates
TECH Clean California is happy to report that incentive claim volumes in PG&E and SMUD service areas are extremely high. Volumes in other electric municipalities are also high compared to the budget. Reservations have accelerated rapidly, and we expect the single family market rate incentives in PG&E, SMUD, and other municipality service areas to be fully reserved soon.
The Incentive Budget Report was recently updated to show how much funding is available at the current incentive levels in each service area, broken out by building type. TECH Clean California will update the budget table every weekday (Monday through Friday) while the budget remains in the service areas of high reservation rates and need contactors to monitor the table and manage their risk appropriately.
As of today, based on reservations and submissions for single family market-rate projects, 29% of funding remains in PG&E service area, 39% of funding remains in SMUD service area, and 52% of funding remains in other municipality service areas, respectively.
99% of single family equity budget remains in all service territories, so these incentives are available for qualifying customers until fully reserved.
Impact on Contractor Incentive Reservation Process
Contractors will need to check the Incentive Budget Report to ensure that funding is still available before continuing to sell market-rate jobs with TECH Clean California heat pump water heater incentives.
Contractors will need to enter all projects into the reservation system (catechincentives.com) as soon as the customer signs the Terms & Conditions to reserve funding. We can only pay claims that are created prior to funding running out.
- Any claims that are already in the reservation system (reserved or submitted) are guaranteed funding as long as the claim is eligible and submitted correctly.
- If a claim does get rejected, the contractor should provide the claim ID of their original submission to ensure the reserved funding carries over to their new submission.
- If a claim has been flagged for corrections but not rejected, funding is still reserved for the project.
As a reminder, all TECH Clean California heat pump water heater incentives are “first come first served,” meaning that TECH Clean California can only pay claims that were created prior to funding running out. TECH Clean California will not be able to honor incentive claims reserved after the budget has been fully consumed.
Expansion of Budget Table: Utility Service Areas and Building Type
The Incentive Budget Report now shows budget amounts and reservation volume by utility service areas, single family vs. multifamily vs. commercial, and market rate vs. equity. This updated report provides transparency into how much funding remains for projects and will be updated every weekday (Monday through Friday) while the budget remains in the service areas with high reservation rates.
Release of Statewide Budget at Lower Incentive Levels
TECH Clean California has set aside a portion of the budget which will be released with lower incentive rates in the service areas with high participation at a time yet to be determined. The goal is to continue to provide incentive levels that help contractors close sales, while also having the budget last longer and reach more installations.
The Ultimate Goal: Longer-Term Incentive Funding
TECH Clean California thanks its distributors, manufacturers, and contractors for all the work to sell clean and efficient heat pump technologies to customers. The high volumes are a great indicator of success. Together, we are transforming the market. The steps we are taking now will ultimately help continue the momentum for longer with the current available funding.
The TECH Clean California initiative is funded by California ratepayers and taxpayers and administered by Southern California Edison Company under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission. The TECH Clean California team is led by Energy Solutions and partners with Ardenna Energy, Association of Energy Affordability, Building Decarbonization Coalition, Electrify My Home, Frontier Energy, National Comfort Institute, Energy Outlet, Recurve Analytics, The Ortiz Group, Tre’ Laine Associates, and VEIC.
If you have any questions, please register below to join the regular contractor office hours next Tuesday, February 6, at 9 a.m. PT, or reach out to TECH Clean California at TECH.info@energy-solution.com with any questions.