Texas battery incentives in 2026: who still pays you for a home battery, and the catch

No. Texas has no statewide program that pays you to buy a home battery. The state's big backup power program is for hospitals and other critical sites, not homes. Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP, the companies that run the wires in most of the state, had no battery rebate on Oct. 26, 2026.

Some places do pay. Austin Energy is the only Texas utility we found that pays a rebate on a battery you own. A few co-ops and El Paso Electric team up with Base Power to put a company-owned battery in your garage for a few hundred dollars. CPS Energy in San Antonio pays a small credit each time your battery helps the grid, and Entergy Texas in Southeast Texas pays up to $325 a year. Not sure who delivers your power? Our guide to finding your electric utility shows how to tell.

The rest of this page goes area by area. First: the tax break most people still ask about.

The 30% federal credit is gone for new batteries, and Texas has only a property tax break. The federal law now says the credit does not apply to money spent after Dec. 31, 2025. The catch is in the timing rule: the cost counts as spent when the install is finished, not when you paid. So a battery paid for in 2025 but finished in 2026 gets nothing.

One federal path is left, and it is not yours to claim. The owner of a leased or company-owned battery can still claim a business credit (section 48E). You only see that through a lower price. Austin Energy's rebate does not allow those batteries, so you have to choose one or the other.

For the solar side of these rules, see our Texas solar incentives guide.

Pick who delivers your power and where you are with a battery. The finder lists every program we found for that area, what it pays up front and over time, and the catch in each one.

The amounts come from each program's own page on Oct. 26, 2026. The 10-year numbers assume a program keeps paying the same amount, and they leave out what your power itself costs. Programs change, so check the program's page before you sign.

In the Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP areas, the answer always ends at a power plan. The battery money there is tied to the plan, so the plan's price matters as much as the battery deal.

Austin Energy pays twice. First, a $500 rebate for each battery system that got permission to operate on or after Feb. 18, 2025. Then a yearly payment of $75 for each kW your battery delivers during events. Austin Energy's own example: a 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwall with a 20% reserve gives about 4.3 kW, so about $324 a year.

Solar is not required. The list of batteries that can join includes Enphase IQ, FranklinWH aPower, Generac PWRcell 2, SolarEdge Home Battery and Tesla Powerwall. Leased and other company-owned batteries cannot join, and that includes Base.

Austin Energy also signed a separate deal for Base batteries. Through it, Base installs a 39.2 kWh battery for $695 plus $19 a month, and your home stays on Austin Energy. That battery belongs to Base, so it cannot also earn the $500. Our Austin Energy guide covers the city's rates and bill help.

CPS Energy and Entergy Texas pay battery owners for events, and three co-ops plus El Paso Electric offer a Base battery at a low price. These areas do not let you pick a power company, so the program is the whole deal.

• CPS Energy (San Antonio). My Battery Rewards pays a $10 bill credit for each event your battery helps with. It arrives 6 to 10 weeks later. CPS does not publish how many events it calls in a year. You need CPS's approval to connect a battery first. See our CPS Energy guide.
• Entergy Texas (Southeast Texas). Its Battery Storage Solutions program pays up to $325 a year. Events run on weekdays between 1 and 7 p.m. and last about 1.5 hours. Only Tesla Powerwall and FranklinWH batteries can join, and a battery charged only from the grid is fine. Enroll by Sept. 15 to earn for that year; pay comes after Sept. 30.
• CoServ (Denton County area). Powerwall owners get $30 a month per Powerwall, or $360 a year. CoServ can call up to 125 events a year, and 20% of the charge stays in the battery. CoServ's Base offer is $345 up front with no monthly fee, a limited-time founding price.
• GVEC (Guadalupe Valley). A 25 kWh Base battery for $295, with upkeep covered for its life, GVEC says.
• Farmers Electric Cooperative. A Base battery for $695 and $0 a month, on Base's page for the co-op.
• El Paso Electric. El Paso is outside the main Texas grid. Its pilot with Base puts a battery in at no cost. The first 500 homes get up to $500, or $250 a battery. The term is 10 years, and you owe $250 a battery if it comes out early.

In each of these deals, Base owns the battery and uses part of it to help the grid. You get backup power at a low price, but the battery is not yours to sell or move.

Then no utility pays you for a battery. Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP run the wires, and none had a battery rebate on Oct. 26, 2026. Oncor's 2026 solar program pays the installer for solar, and it is capped at half of the project cost. It is not a battery rebate. We did not find the "$4,000 Oncor battery rebate" some sellers mention in Oncor's 2026 program manual.

Here the money comes from power companies. Some pay you for a battery you own. Others put their own battery in your home if you buy their power.

Read the label, not the ad. On Oct. 26, 2026, Base's plan page showed 13.9¢ per kWh at 2,000 kWh in the Oncor area. Its Electricity Facts Label showed 14.8¢. In the CenterPoint area the label showed 14.4¢. The label is the price the state makes every company show, so compare that one. Our guide to reading a facts label shows where to look, and our Base Power review goes deeper on Base.

A $50 credit from Reliant or Gexa is real money, but it sits on top of a plan. If the plan costs 2¢ more per kWh than another one and you use 1,500 kWh a month, you pay $30 more a month. Compare the full plan price at your ZIP before you switch.

A virtual power plant is a group of home batteries that a company runs together, like one power plant. When the grid is short, the company drains a little from each battery at once. In Texas, ERCOT, the grid operator, tests this with a pilot called ADER, short for aggregated distributed energy resources.

ERCOT said the growth was driven by home battery installs. It does not name the companies, but Base and GVEC both say their batteries take part. You do not join ADER yourself. You join a company's program, and that company decides what you get. Base pays nothing per event: your payoff is the cheap battery and its rate.

This is different from a thermostat program, which pays you to ease off the air conditioning at peak times. Our Texas demand response guide covers those.

No. The Texas Backup Power Package pays for backup power at hospitals, nursing homes, police and fire stations, 911 centers, shelters, cooling and warming centers, and water plants. It is not a home battery program.

The program offers grants of up to $500 per kW plus loans that can be forgiven. Ads that call it a home battery rebate are wrong. If a seller says it pays for your battery, ask for the program page in writing.

Yes, if you set a reserve. Austin Energy, CoServ and Reliant all keep part of the charge for your home. Austin Energy and Entergy Texas say they will usually not call events when a bad storm is coming. Reliant keeps your charge above the level you set.

That matters in Texas. More than 4.5 million people in Texas lost power during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, a federal grid report found. After Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, about 2.26 million CenterPoint customers were affected, the company told the PUCT.

For how long a battery runs and what a whole-home setup costs, read Is a home battery worth it in Texas?.

Over 10 years, the Reliant and Gexa credits pay the most on paper, and CoServ's founding offer costs the least. But these numbers leave out the power itself. A battery plan with a higher price per kWh can wipe out a credit.

A battery you own costs far more up front, which is why the rebate math looks so different. Our home battery cost guide has the prices.

Start with your utility, then the program page, then the paperwork. Most programs sign you up through the battery maker's app or the seller, not a form at the utility.

1. Find your utilityYour bill names it. A city or co-op runs its own program; in the Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP areas, look at power plans.
2. Read the program pageCheck the amount, the battery list, the cap and the term on the program's own page.
3. Get permission to operateA battery must pass your utility's inspection before most programs will enroll it.
4. Enroll and set a reserveJoin through the maker's app or the seller, and pick how much charge to keep for outages.
5. File for the tax breakIf the battery stores solar power, file Form 50-123 with your appraisal district.

Keep every paper: the permission-to-operate date, the program's terms and your enrollment email. Austin Energy, for one, checks the permission date before it pays.