Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS)
California Energy Commission (CEC)
What does it fund?
The Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) Program, administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC), offers incentives to electric customers that provide load reduction and backup generation to support the state’s electrical grid during extreme events, reducing the risk of blackouts.
Who is eligible for funds?
Incentives may be paid to:
Non-residential individual entities
Aggregators of multiple energy customers
Local publicly owned electric utilities and load-serving entities
How does this program provide benefits to priority populations?
These expenditures incentivize reductions in customer net load during extreme events, which helps keep the lights on for the entire state, including priority populations, and may help reduce the need to run conventional fossil resources.
How do I access funds?
Electricity retail suppliers and aggregators of customers can apply through the program website to serve as a DSGS provider to offer DSGS participation to their customers.
Participants must enroll through a DSGS provider, or in limited circumstances, directly enroll with the CEC (see DSGS Program guidelines for exceptions). DSGS providers and directly enrolled participants submit claims for incentives to the CEC at the end of each program season (May 1 through October 31). Incentives are paid based on performance during the program season.
Funding timeline
Program Season: May 1 – October 31 each year
Applications: Accepted year-round on a rolling basis
Claims are paid out after verification of load reduction activity during the program season
Cumulative Statistics
This is a new program and has not yet implemented any GGRF funds.