Selling Stored Power: How US Homes Are Turning Batteries Into Revenue

In Washington state, home battery owners are discovering that their backup systems can do more than keep the lights on during outages — they can generate a steady income.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has rolled out its Flex Batteries program, allowing homeowners to enrol their battery systems and get paid for supporting grid stability. The initiative is structured to reward participants with an upfront incentive of up to $1,000 per battery, followed by annual payments of up to $500 for ongoing participation.

How Homeowners Earn

Under the programme, when electricity demand surges or the grid faces strain, PSE can automatically draw excess stored energy from enrolled home batteries. In return, homeowners are compensated for the energy discharged.

Events can be called year-round, meaning batteries are not just seasonal assets but active grid resources. By supplying stored power during peak demand periods, participants help flatten load spikes and reduce reliance on less efficient peaker plants — while earning recurring payments.

For many households, this transforms a battery system from a passive backup solution into an income-generating energy asset.

Making Storage Financially Viable

The launch comes at a time when federal tax credits for standalone home energy storage have ended, making state and utility-led programmes increasingly important in improving project economics.

Gary Lam, CEO and co-founder of FranklinWH Energy Storage Inc., said such utility partnerships are reshaping the value proposition of residential storage.

“With federal tax credits for home energy storage ending last year, programs such as this from Puget Sound Energy are an important way for homeowners to make battery backup affordable,” Lam said. “Homeowners can keep their power on during outages, reduce their energy bills, and support the grid during high-demand periods.”

He added that customers increasingly expect storage systems to deliver measurable returns, not just resilience.

“An energy storage system today is more than backup power. It’s also a way to earn money from PSE while helping maintain reliability across its service territory,” Lam said.

Technology Behind the Payments

Enrollment and battery dispatch are facilitated by software providers Uplight and Derapi, which manage event notifications, energy withdrawals, and compensation tracking.

To qualify, batteries must be owned by PSE customers and interconnected to the utility’s grid.

A Growing Revenue Model for Households

FranklinWH, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, manufactures integrated home energy management and storage systems designed to work with rooftop solar. Its participation in the Flex Batteries programme reflects a broader industry shift toward virtual power plant (VPP) models, where aggregated residential batteries function as distributed grid assets.

For homeowners, the equation is becoming clearer: install a battery, secure grid resilience, reduce electricity bills, and unlock a new revenue stream.

As utilities across the United States increasingly turn to distributed energy resources to manage demand volatility, programmes like Flex Batteries suggest that the future of grid stability may be sitting quietly in residential garages — earning money one dispatch event at a time.