Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) Program

Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) — Enrollment

Offers grid-support incentives for customer demand-management participation to strengthen real-world implementation.

The California Energy Commission's Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program provides financial incentives to California electricity customers who reduce consumption or deploy backup generation capacity during extreme grid stress events occurring between May and October each year. The program is funded by California's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is derived from cap-and-trade auction proceeds, though DSGS faced significant budget cuts in 2025. The Fifth Edition DSGS Guidelines are currently active; a March 2026 stakeholder workshop was held and the 2025 enrollment data was compiled by district and county. The Reliability Incentives Office within the CEC administers the program, contactable at DSGS@energy.ca.gov.

Eligible participants include for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, universities, and individual electricity customers who are California electricity ratepayers. Participants must be willing and able to reduce load or dispatch backup power on short notice during declared grid stress events. Incentive payment rates per kilowatt-hour reduced or per event are detailed in the Fifth Edition Guidelines; specific payment amounts were not extractable from the published program overview. Enrollment is tracked at the district and county level and is compiled annually.

The DSGS program is structurally different from competitive project grants: there is no proposal scoring or narrative review. Instead, qualifying customers enroll, commit to a curtailment or generation profile, and receive payments when dispatch is called. Facilities with large controllable loads — such as industrial operations, cold storage, agricultural pumping, or large commercial buildings — or those with diesel or battery backup generation are the most economically attractive participants. Organizations considering enrollment should review the Fifth Edition Guidelines and contact DSGS@energy.ca.gov to confirm enrollment windows and payment rates for the 2026 program year.