National Grid: Upstate NY - EV charging discount programs

[Lake Placid Lightning]

I recently installed an Emporia Level 2 home EV charger and was considering joining one of National Grid's two programs that offer discounts for electricity usage during non-peak times. The plans are explained on National Grid's Electric Vehicle Hub.

I'd like to hear if anyone has experience with either of these programs:

1. EV Charge Smart Plan
The EV Charge Smart Plan is a program designed to provide Upstate NY customers with financial incentives to charge during off-peak hours (11 p.m. to 7 a.m. est.) when there is less strain on the grid and energy costs are lower.

The plan provides the opportunity to save $180 annually in monthly incentives and earn a one-time enrollment incentive.

Enrollment Incentive
A $25 one-time incentive* will be awarded for actively participating in the program for a minimum of three (3) months.

* Enrollment incentives are paid once to the participating National Grid account number.

Monthly Incentive
Customers can earn a $15 incentive** per National Grid account number each calendar month. To earn the incentive, customers need to:

• Charge a minimum of 50 kWh at-home and,
• 80% or > of at-home charging occurs during off-peak hours

2. Voluntary Time-of-Use Rate
Lower your energy costs with the Voluntary Time-of-Use Rate (SC-1 VTOU) by charging your electric vehicle during the off-peak hours of 11pm to 7am.

Most EVs can be easily programmed to charge during these hours using an onboard timer, mobile app, outlet timer, or EV charging station.

Key Features for EV drivers
Lower Costs: Save on energy costs by shifting your EV charging – and other appliance use – to the off-peak hours of 11 pm to 7 am.

One-Time Credit: After one year, we will compare your SC-1 VTOU costs to the standard, non-time-of-use SC-1 rate. If you would have paid less on the SC-1 rate, you will receive a one-time credit for the difference. Please see below for more information regarding eligibility for this reconcilement.

Annual Choice: Each year, on an annual basis, you can choose to stay on the SC-1 VTOU rate or return to the SC-1 rate.

To Enroll
To sign up, download the enrollment form or call 1-800-664-6729, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more details, please email us.

Who is eligible?
SC-1 VTOU rate is available to residential customers with an account billed under SC-1 or SC-1C residential electric service classifications. Please refer to page 2 of your bill to see your service classification. If you enroll in this program, you will no longer be classified as an SC-1 or SC-1C customer, you will become an SC-1 VTOU customer.

The SC-1 VTOU rate includes three rate periods: on-peak, off-peak and super-peak. Delivery rates are charged based on your on-peak (including super-peak) and off-peak usage, and commodity rates will be charged based on your on-peak, off-peak and super-peak usage.

	Delivery Rate Period	Commodity Rate Period
On-Peak	7am-11pm	7am-11pm
Off-Peak	11pm-7am	11pm-7am
Super-Peak		2pm-6pm (June-August)*

*Excluding weekends and holidays
As an SC1-VTOU customer, you are billed for electricity based on your kWh usage in each of the above periods. However, during the summer super-peak hours, capacity charges that are typically included in eight hours of the weekdays will be aggregated into only four hours of the summer weekdays, which will result in higher supply charges during the super-peak hours of 2pm to 6pm.

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[I <3 My Lightning]

I have experience and I have discussed both programs with the head program manager and the one that overseas the VTOU. They are local for me and are located in Albany NY.

I also was troubleshooting for the app company with our other vehicle, a kia ev6. That app and the connection to our ev6, which is a passive connection, was a horrible experience as it killed the 12v battery and blocked important vehicle notifications; because how it was token to the Kia servers and was in "between" kias servers and the vehicle. It also required us to spend more money for the top kia connect services to help mitigate some of the issue, which negates the total savings and then some. But I digress...

The smart ny app company is based in Europe as is national grid being a UK company. But they have worked out the bugs for active hardware connection like the emporium charger.

The vtou is no longer meant for residential accounts. You can join but the rates for delivery and such is currently crazy and only going to go up. It actually will cost a residential customer more than the current residential locked in rate for any time of use. In that program you get locked in for a year of time and must accept the on peak rates too. Once upon a time, many years ago, the vtou was good and it still requires a different meter.... They then had a 2 tiered set flat fee for like 250 and 350 kwhs per month and you had to be honest and charge off peak.

Now they have a worse program which is the 15 off per month, but hey you might have to spend hundreds just for a different charger just to get back the 15 per month.... Once again I digress.

BTW, All Ford EVs and their EV chargers like CSP will never be accepted into this program. You can ask and be put on the wish list, but it still won't happen. Ford won't give up the secured token and won't let them have access to the data that ford wants for themselves... So thanks for tracking us ford, but thanks for not selling us out. I digress yet again.

I have excess solar and got tired of playing with the smart ny app, having to connect, disconnect our Kia account just to make it work. Wasn't worth the hassle to save the 15....

Now my 2 cents, when all the new smart meters are installed in an area, I can see national grid going back to a vtou residential program because they can then track actual time of use electricity amounts.

 

[Lake Placid Lightning]

My smart electric meter was installed in July 2024.

The website states that VTOU is available for residential customers:

SC-1 VTOU rate is available to residential customers with an account billed under SC-1 or SC-1C residential electric service classifications.

Perhaps you were referring to the SC-1C rate that was not meant for residential accounts?

The SC-1C rate was originally a mandatory time-of-use rate for large residential and farm service customers, but was subsequently changed to an optional time-of-use rate for residential customers. This rate was not created with electric vehicle customers in mind and the time periods developed for the SC-1C rate class generally favor large use customers like farms and religious institutions. In addition, the SC-1C rate has one delivery charge for all kWh usage, but includes three time periods with seasonal distinctions for the pricing of commodity.

It is not entirely clear from the website if the peak rate under the VTOU program is higher than the standard residential rate.

I think it will pretty simple to download the EV Charge Smart Plan app and give that a try. At least it won't cause my electric bill to increase.

 

[jobofly79]

I am looking in to this program as well with NYSEG.

 

[I <3 My Lightning]

My smart electric meter was installed in July 2024.

The website states that VTOU is available for residential customers:

Perhaps you were referring to the SC-1C rate that was not meant for residential accounts?

It is not entirely clear from the website if the peak rate under the VTOU program is higher than the standard residential rate.

I think it will pretty simple to download the EV Charge Smart Plan app and give that a try. At least it won't cause my electric bill to increase.

I never said the vtou was not available to residential customers. It's just not meant to be used, (let me clarify), for new sign ups by residential users, because the current rate is bad during on peak hours and it also fluctuates seasonally. It becomes even worse if you have solar and netmeeting. As they will also adjust how much they pay you back for that months rate.

They don't publish a rate because that fluctuates and when you sign the contract that is when they set your agreed rates

If you ever read how the California members talk about how bad on peak rates are, it's kind of like that with vtou here.

I'm just telling you what I know about the program because I spoke directly with the people I mentioned. I worked with them for months helping with the program, website, incoherent program wording, app issues, ect.

The new $15 a month is geared currently to residential folks. Between fees, taxes, delivery charges and price per kwh, we are a tad over 22 cents per kwh... So about 818 kwh of "free" charging energy per year. And since AC to DC conversion when charging our trucks is about 93 percent efficient, that's about 760 kwh.... And say you average in a year 2.0miles per kw that's about 1521 free miles.

Yes it's easy to set up the app especially with the emporium.

 

[I <3 My Lightning]

I don't know if you read the vtou FAQ....

 

[Danface]

So why when you sign up to use Ford's software, you give up all you privacy BUT Ford won't provide charging logs to other entities? Sorry @Ford Senior Master but I am totally unimpressed with the company's software and data practices. Good truck, crappy implementation that is not getting better (BTW, it would be interesting to see just how many HIS setups actually work)

 

[Lake Placid Lightning]

I had an issue completing registration of the EV Charge Smart Plan app.

1. Logged in with National Grid account login ID and password, no issue
2. Selected my home where the Emporia Level 2 home EV charger is installed, no issue
3. Next step was a menu to select my vehicle, however the Ford F-150 Lightning is not listed because it is not a compatible vehicle.

The website states you need to have a compatible vehicle OR home EV charging station with:

• Active telematics package OR
• Charging Station that is network enabled.

The Emporia is a compatible EV charge station, but the app wouldn't let me proceed past entering my vehicle.

Before I turned in for the night, I sent an email explaining my problem to the listed tech support address: [email protected]

When I woke up in the morning, I had a response from tech support stating, "We can help you further by adding the Ford manually to your profile so you can move forward with the registration and add your Emporia charger to the app."

I had to force-close the app, but after re-opening, I could see my Lightning was added and it prompted me to select my home EV charger from the list.

I'm registered, but will have to wait to see when/if I receive the $25 enrollment incentive and $15 monthly incentive.

NOTE: any Lightning owner with a Ford branded EV charger (like the Ford Charge Station Pro provided as part of a new 2024 or 2025 vehicle purchase) would not be eligible for this discount program.

 

[Bwanapete]

We use NG’s time of use plan all use between 11pm and 7am. That means we pay about 5 cents/kw. The special tou meter was free and the rate applies to all use, whether it is to charge our Lightning, our Tesla, or to run our dishwasher or dryer. At the time we signed on, the special electric plan was maybe ok for Leafs or plug-in hybrids but not for our power-hungry vehicles.

 

[Bwanapete]

Following up, we charge both vehicles, one with the Tesla HPWC on a 240 volt 60 amp breaker and the other on the Ford 240 volt with a 100 amp breaker. I stagger the starting times for the two vehicles by 15 minutes. This is at a house that only has 200 amp service. Been doing this for over 2 years.

 

[I <3 My Lightning]

No matter the year the Ford lightning is not compatible or the ford charger.

I guess they still have app bugs. You should have been able to add just the charger when you first started the app.

Since it is the 12th, around the end of the national grid monthly billing cycle, you may see it in 2 statements if you can get 50kwh off peak tonight or by tomorrow night. Otherwise maybe by the third statement you will start to see it and then they will catch you up.

You have to be connected for at least 3 months and be with in the plans rules before they give you the 1 time 25 bonus.

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