SHARE and the case for household infrastructure.

Program announcement · source context

PG&E, Rewiring America, and Google announced SHARE on September 3, 2026. PG&E says Google fully funds customer incentives, technology deployment, and program delivery. The program combines coordination of nearly 21,000 existing devices with new equipment offers. That figure describes devices, not homes. The launch includes a Carrier battery-enabled heat-pump offering. These are announced commitments, not independently audited public benefits or demonstrated capacity results.

Sources: SHARE launch announcement (PG&E)

Program announcement · source context

Rewiring America separately describes a target of nearly 500 additional households receiving upgrades. This is a deployment target, not a count of completed installations.

Sources: Homegrown Energy California launch (Rewiring America)

PMF recommendation

PMF recommends evaluating these two activities separately. Enrollment of existing equipment tests coordination; new installations test procurement, installation, and customer economics. Combining their counts would obscure which intervention produces each claimed benefit.

The published SHARE offer is a discount, not a complete installed price. The FAQ describes Carrier ownership of the battery and potential repayment on early exit. The following is a September 7 snapshot; eligibility and the signed agreement govern.

Sources: SHARE offer, eligibility and FAQ (Rewiring America)

PMF recommends adapting the underlying transaction: an entity needing grid services helps finance useful equipment hosted by customers. Its contribution should purchase a defined service at a justified price. It should not buy unlimited control of a household or an exemption from the utility planning process.

A Hawaiʻi program should solicit competing equipment and finance portfolios by island and location. Sponsors could support installation or availability payments under published terms. Procurement should disclose the sponsor’s obligations if its own project is delayed or abandoned. Neither customers nor remaining ratepayers should inherit that commercial risk by default.

PMF recommends a coordinated customer offer with three identifiable contracts. Installation and maintenance establish equipment quality and repair responsibility. Finance or service terms establish ownership, charges, transfer, and exit. Grid-service terms establish dispatch, reserve energy, data use, and compensation. The administrator should identify the responsible counterparty for every obligation.

This separation matters when something fails. A broken compressor should trigger repair, not a dispatch penalty. An aggregator’s communications outage should not increase a household’s debt. A sponsor’s withdrawal should activate a program reserve or replacement arrangement. Consumers need one effective complaint channel even when several firms provide the service.

PMF recommends an evaluation plan before enrollment. Record quoted and final installation costs, time to commission, customer charges, equipment failures, and service complaints. Test dispatch over specified intervals and report delivered power, usable energy, overrides, and recovery. Household bill outcomes require a stated weather and occupancy adjustment method, with uncertainty reported.

A program should publish aggregate unsuccessful outcomes alongside successes. Enrollment totals and promotional satisfaction statements cannot establish dependable capacity. Independent evaluators should have access to auditable records under privacy controls, and public reporting should explain which observations are measured, modeled, or still unavailable.

PMF recommends starting with a defined service area, a qualified installer network, and an independently approved customer agreement. Include rental and multifamily pathways through separate consent and ownership arrangements. California launch exclusions should not become automatic Hawaiʻi eligibility rules; each exclusion should have a documented technical or administrative reason.

Expansion should require evidence that equipment is maintainable locally, monthly costs remain affordable, and contracted grid services survive ordinary failures. A successful pilot earns the next procurement tranche. It does not establish that every feeder, building type, or customer will produce the same result.