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Energy Commission outlines scaling of demand‑side grid support, DIVA projects and long‑duration storage
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Summary
California Energy Commission and CPUC officials described how demand‑side grid support (DSGS), the distributed electricity backup assets program (DIVA), long‑duration energy storage pilots and hydrogen grants are expected to expand and how the programs interact with bond and budget proposals.
The California Energy Commission told the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 that multiple clean‑energy programs are scaling up to provide grid reliability and resource diversity as the state adds clean generation.
Drew Bowen, executive director of the California Energy Commission, summarized the DSGS program and its growth since creation in 2022. Bowen said DSGS “stood this program up in August 2022, literally weeks after the legislature adopted the legislation authorizing us to do so,” and reported that by 2024 DSGS enrolled over 269,000 participants and more than 500 megawatts of capacity, including a roughly 200 MW virtual power plant composed of customer batteries. Bowen described DSGS as an “insurance policy…to help maintain grid reliability during extreme heat events” and said the program has been modified annually based on market learning.
On the distributed electricity backup assets program (DIVA), Bowen said CEC adopted guidelines in October 2023 and awarded nine projects totaling $123,000,000 in April 2024, with expected capacity additions of about 300 MW by 2027. He said roughly three quarters of that capacity will come from batteries and the remainder from efficiency upgrades at power plants.
Bowen also described the commission’s long‑duration energy storage (LDES) work, noting the agency has invested in multiple non‑lithium chemistries and required funded projects to deliver at least eight hours of storage. Bowen said 10 LDES projects are under development and some will be operational by next year, including a project near San Diego that he said will produce about 700 megawatt‑hours when complete.
CEC deputy director Alok Gupta told the committee that all DIVA funds are encumbered and DSGS has projected expenditures that are expected to exhaust next year absent new appropriations, underlining the administration’s request for stable funding to sustain program participation.
Committee members and CEC staff discussed practical implementation questions, including whether residential batteries can participate; Bowen and CEC staff said residential battery systems already participate in DSGS via storage virtual power plant options. CEC staff emphasized that continued, predictable funding is important to retain private aggregators and expand enrollment.
Why it matters: DSGS, DIVA and LDES are operational pieces of the state’s strategy to maintain reliability as it phases out fossil peaker plants. Funding and program design choices will affect how quickly clean, distributed resources scale and which communities and facilities gain access to incentives.
