Managed Charging for Electric Vehicles
Efficiency Maine offers residential customers an incentive to reduce the power they draw from the electric grid when there is a forecast for peak demand. This is achieved by encouraging participating EV owners to delay vehicle charging until later in the evening, when electricity is less expensive and less carbon-intensive to produce.
When enrolled to use the platform, a participant simply plugs their car in as they normally would, and Efficiency Maine will automatically delay their vehicle from charging on certain days with peak grid conditions. Typically, this occurs during hot summer days. Participants are always able to override the delay in charging to accommodate their transportation needs.
Customers are compensated on a continuous enrollment basis for permitting Efficiency Maine to manage their electric vehicle charging. We do this through a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS), an online platform run by a competitively selected third party called Virtual Peaker. The DERMS platform allows Efficiency Maine to notify participants of impending demand response events, manage their charging during the event period, track performance across demand response events, and issue incentives at the end of the calendar year.
There are two ways to participate:
1. Charging management via controls on your home charger. Eligible charger manufacturers are:
- ChargePoint
- Emporia
To find a charger installer, see Efficiency Maine’s list of Qualified Partners. Where the form asks, “What services do you need?,” select “Electric Vehicle Chargers.”
2. Charging management via integrated controls within your electric vehicle. The primary charger associated with the vehicle must be capable of providing 2.8kW to 19.2kW of power. Eligible vehicle manufacturers are:
- BMW (model year 2016 and later)
- Hyundai (model year 2017 and later)
- Jaguar (model year 2016 and later)
- Kia (model year 2017 and later)
- Land Rover (model year 2019-2021)
- MINI (model year 2020 and later)
- Nissan (model year 2023 and later)
- Tesla (model year 2012 and later)
- Toyota (model year 2017 and later, excluding Prius Prime)
- Volkswagen (model year 20210 and later, U.S. only)
Incentive: One-time $50 payment in the month of May following initial enrollment. Then $50 paid annually in December.
How to Get an Incentive
- Install your eligible device.
- Submit an enrollment form and accept the Terms and Conditions.
- Maintain connectivity of eligible device.
- Receive incentive via email.
More details:
EV Managed Charging Program Manual