The “on-the-meter” grid technology device SPAN Edge is now accepted for customer use Pacific Gas and Electric Utility (PG&E).
SPAN Edge enables real-time load management and allows homes to add new electrical appliances or charge electric vehicles without expensive electrical panel or service upgrades – addressing one of the key barriers to home electrification.
PG&E will deploy the new SPAN Edge devices in conjunction with next-generation metering infrastructure through its new PanelBoost program, designed to reduce upgrade costs for customers adopting electric vehicles, heat pumps, induction cooking and other high-efficiency electric technologies. PG&E estimates that more than 600,000 homes in PG&E’s service area will likely need some form of electrical service upgrade over the next decade to meet electrification demand.
“PG&E is committed to helping our customers electrify affordably while maintaining a reliable, resilient grid,” said Mike Delaney, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, PG&E. “Our work with SPAN aims to enable thousands of households to add electrical appliances and electric vehicles more quickly, without more expensive panel and electrical system upgrades.”
PG&E joins a growing list of energy companies and grid partners, including Landis+Gyr, using SPAN Edge to enable affordable customer electrification, manage distribution system upgrades and support the clean energy transition.
“Our partnership with PG&E is a critical step in making home electrification affordable and accessible,” said Arch Rao, CEO of SPAN. “By deploying SPAN Edge at scale, we are helping PG&E customers bypass the traditional ‘panel bottleneck’ and accelerate the transition to clean energy.”
SPAN Edge uses a “Dynamic Service Rating” capability to shape home energy demand during peak times, protecting local electrical transformers and maintaining grid reliability. This technology complements PG&E’s broader grid edge, R&D and innovation strategy to develop and deploy scalable smart panel and meter socket-based solutions to avoid costly service upgrades for customers.
Electricians and installers who participated in early PanelBoost feedback sessions praised the program for helping customers avoid electrical panel service upgrades.
“PG&E just made it possible to effectively have a 200 amp panel by limiting the loads in their home,” one installer noted. Customer testers echoed this sentiment, with several indicating they would have used this route before embarking on traditional upgrade work.
SPAN Edge devices are quickly installed on the electricity meter. They provide utilities with a reliable, flexible load-shaping tool and offer customers a lower-cost path to electrification, avoiding service upgrades that can cost $6,000 to $40,000 and take months to complete. By comparison, the cost estimate for a customer to hire an electrician to install a SPAN Edge device via PanelBoost could be between $500 and $2,000, depending on a range of factors.
Through PanelBoost, PG&E will provide the SPAN Edge device to customers to supplement their electric meter, and customers will be responsible for the cost of an electrician to install the device and the cost of wiring new devices and loads connected to the device. PG&E plans to launch a website with more information about the SPAN Edge PanelBoost offering in summer 2026.
News release from PG&E
