April 2026
The Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) Program: Participation Rates Across California
DSGS is California's only statewide virtual power plant. In less than three years it has scaled to more than 1 GW of dispatchable capacity, as large as a nuclear plant, with over 203,000 sites enrolled across every legislative district in the state. The program is only funded through the end of 2026.
What is DSGS?
California's only statewide virtual power plant
DSGS coordinates distributed energy resources, primarily home battery systems, to provide clean emergency capacity, protect ratepayers from price spikes, and ease the transition away from fossil-fueled peaker plants.
A two-to-one return for ratepayers
Independent analysis by the Brattle Group estimates DSGS returns roughly two dollars in system value for every dollar invested — up to $206 million in net savings for ratepayers if funded through 2028.
Built on devices Californians already own
Option 3 networks home battery systems; Option 4 enrolls smart thermostats and other eligible load-reduction devices. Both are dispatched during grid stress to prevent shortages.
A clean alternative to peaker plants
Contracts for aging fossil-fueled peaker plants expire at the end of 2026. DSGS provides a low-cost, clean way to meet peak demand as those plants retire.
Inexpensive to run
From 2022 to 2025, $13 million in administrative costs unlocked 1,145 MW of capacity, while $62.5 million went directly to participating customers. The program is not paid for by ratepayers.
What we did
How we measured participation
Official enrollment data
We started from the CEC's official Option 3 and Option 4 participation records for the 2025 program year: more than 203,000 enrolled sites and their nameplate capacity.
Mapped to every district
Each site was assigned to its State Senate district, Assembly district, and county, then divided by U.S. Census 2020 population to compare participation on a per-capita basis.
Cross-referenced with income
We joined county-level participation with LBNL solar-adopter income estimates to gauge whether the program reaches lower- and middle-income communities.
Most participation comes from home battery storage
- Option 3 — Market-Aware Storage VPP63.4%
- Option 4 — Emergency Load Flexibility VPP36.6%
Geographic reach
Strong participation across California
Counties are shaded by DSGS sites per 1,000 residents. Scroll to see where participation is strongest — from the top counties by enrollment to every Assembly and Senate district.
California counties participate
DSGS has enrolled sites in 91% of California's 58 counties. Only five sparsely populated northern counties have no participation yet.
| San Diego | 37,103 |
| Los Angeles | 26,044 |
| Riverside | 22,211 |
| Orange | 21,190 |
| San Bernardino | 20,507 |
| Kern | 7,154 |
| Ventura | 6,965 |
| Contra Costa | 6,221 |
| Fresno | 6,119 |
| Santa Clara | 5,776 |
Every Assembly district
All 80 Assembly districts have DSGS participants. AD-76 leads with 7,780 enrollments, followed by AD-71 and AD-75.
| AD-76 · Darshana Patel (D) | 7,780 |
| AD-71 · Kate Sanchez (R) | 7,714 |
| AD-75 · Carl DeMaio (R) | 7,317 |
| AD-74 · Laurie Davies (R) | 6,074 |
| AD-47 · Greg Wallis (R) | 5,921 |
| AD-77 · Tasha Boerner (D) | 5,700 |
| AD-34 · Tom Lackey (R) | 5,607 |
| AD-63 · Bill Essayli (R) | 5,565 |
| AD-42 · Jacqui Irwin (D) | 5,488 |
| AD-32 · Stan Ellis (R) | 5,251 |
Every Senate district
All 40 state Senate districts have participants as well. SD-40 leads with 14,673 enrollments, followed by SD-38 and SD-32.
| SD-40 · Brian W. Jones (R) | 14,673 |
| SD-38 · Catherine Blakespear (D) | 12,479 |
| SD-32 · Kelly Seyarto (R) | 12,145 |
| SD-23 · Suzette Martinez Valladares (R) | 11,381 |
| SD-19 · Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R) | 10,150 |
| SD-39 · Akilah Weber Pierson (D) | 9,348 |
| SD-37 · Steven Choi (R) | 8,324 |
| SD-12 · Shannon Grove (R) | 8,317 |
| SD-16 · Melissa Hurtado (D) | 7,846 |
| SD-29 · Eloise Gomez Reyes (D) | 7,666 |
Income and equity
Strong participation in lower-income communities
DSGS is a program for all Californians, including lower-income customers. County-level income data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows the program reaching working- and middle-class communities, not only affluent ones.
46.5%
Nearly half qualify as low-to-moderate income, earning below 120% of their area median income; one in four earn below 80%.
7.7 per 1,000
Counties in the lowest solar-adopter income quintile average 7.7 DSGS sites per 1,000 residents, the highest rate of any quintile.
~49,000 sites
One in four DSGS sites are in counties where the median solar adopter earns below $100,000, including San Bernardino, Kern, Fresno, and Tulare.
What's at stake
A proven program about to run out of funding
DSGS reached this scale on a fraction of its budget. Authorized for $314 million under AB 205, it has retained just $109.5 million after 2024 clawbacks. The program was left out of the 2025–26 state budget and is expected to exhaust its funds by the end of 2026.
DSGS funding: authorized vs. retained
The program delivered more than 1 GW of capacity with about a third of the money it was promised.
Summary
More than 200,000 California households are making the grid cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable
DSGS has shown that a statewide virtual power plant can scale quickly, deliver clean electricity at low cost, and reach communities across the income spectrum. Continued investment would protect ratepayers, strengthen reliability, and expand equitable access to distributed energy.
Sources
1. Stokes, L. C. The Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) Program: Participation Rates Across California. The 2035 Initiative, UC Santa Barbara, April 2026.
2. California Energy Commission. Demand Side Grid Support Program, Options 3 and 4 participation data, 2025 program year.
3. Hledik, R., Peters, K., and Lohiya, P. The Demand Side Grid Support Program: An Assessment of Scale and Value. The Brattle Group, December 2025 Update.
4. Elmallah, S., Forrester, S., Barbose, G., O'Shaughnessy, E., and Wiser, R. Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends: 2024 Update. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, December 2024.
5. Per-capita rates use U.S. Census 2020 county population. CalEnviroScreen and population data join via the project datasets.