CalChoice Turns Neighborhood Batteries Into Grid Power

CalChoice and Lunar Energy are turning home batteries and EVs into a virtual power plant, launching across California this August

15 May 2026

On a hot August evening in California, when air conditioners hum and power grids strain, the typical household sits passively waiting for electricity. A new partnership between CalChoice, a multi-city electricity manager, and Lunar Energy, a residential battery firm, aims to change that. By late summer 2026, thousands of home batteries, electric vehicle chargers, and smart thermostats could be feeding energy back to the grid, dispatched in real time by an AI platform called Gridshare.

Community aggregators like CalChoice pay steep prices when demand peaks on wholesale markets. A coordinated fleet of home devices can reduce that exposure by releasing stored energy at the precise moment it costs most to buy. "A virtual power plant allows us to monitor and manage a fleet of energy assets to shift load when power is most expensive," said CalChoice Interim CEO Rob Johnson. Customers who enroll are offered lower bills and backup power in exchange for surrendering some control over when their batteries discharge.

Such arrangements reflect a broader shift in how grids are managed. North American virtual power plant capacity reached 37.5 gigawatts in 2025, yet most programmes remain at pilot scale. Lunar Energy, which raised $232 million in February 2026 to push total funding past $500 million, is betting it can move beyond demonstrations. Its manufacturing target of 100,000 battery systems annually by end of 2028 suggests confidence.

Reasons for caution remain. Lunar's hardware carries a price premium of roughly 10% over comparable products, which may deter uptake in lower-income communities, exactly where community energy managers often operate. Rollout is intentionally phased, beginning with existing batteries before adding EV chargers and thermostats, which limits near-term grid impact. Each municipality also gets its own participation rules, adding coordination complexity.

What CalChoice is building is less a revolution than a template: a practical, community-scale model for aggregating residential assets before wholesale market reform catches up with the technology. Whether it proves replicable elsewhere will depend as much on price points and local politics as on software.