Maryland State Incentive?

[idris]

Maryland offers a $3,000 tax credit for the VW eGolf: http://www.mva.maryland.gov/About-MVA/INFO/27300/27300-71T.htm

However, on the site it says "Credit request received are subject to the availability of funding". Does anyone know how much they have allocated? I just got my eGolf and submitted the form, so if I hear back, I'll post here.

 

[AgentEG]

Make sure you look into the pepco plug in program

http://www.pepco.com/my-home/save-money-and-conserve-energy/plug-in-vehicle-charging-pilot/

 

[idris]

Thanks, AgentEG. I asked the electrician about the "second meter" option that Pepco has, and he said it's not worth it. The savings are not that much, and you're going to have to pay to have it installed. (He says Pepco pays for the meter, but not the installation). Nonetheless, I'm going to see what the deal is with the off-peak savings.

Any wort about the Maryland incentive availability though?

 

[AgentEG]

Maryland offers a $3,000 tax credit for the VW eGolf: http://www.mva.maryland.gov/About-MVA/INFO/27300/27300-71T.htm

However, on the site it says "Credit request received are subject to the availability of funding". Does anyone know how much they have allocated? I just got my eGolf and submitted the form, so if I hear back, I'll post here.

Have you received your rebate yet? If so, how long did it take before it showed up? Thanks.

 

[tigger19687]

" one-time excise tax credit, up to $3000.00"

This looks like it is not a rebate check like most places, looks like Tax type credit for Excise. I am not sure if/when you pay that.
Here in MASS you get a bill in Feb for a tax (personal Property type tax for the town).

 

[preilly44]

I live in MD and filed for the $3k. I'm 95% sure it comes in the form of a check. I filed in late January and hope to receive the check soon.

 

[idris]

I filed for the $3,000 at the end of December and just got my check from MD last week. It came about 2-3 weeks after my HOV sticker.

I also filed for the EVSE rebate mid-January, and received a check for $900 (the max) about 3 weeks later.

Thanks, Maryland!

 

[tigger19687]

Wow, guess your Excise tax is very different from MA.
Glad it is a check, makes it so much more fun !!!

 

[sacks]

Can anyone offer feedback on the Pepco PIV charging pilot program? I am interested in the second meter, the bundled rate looks good for off peak green but I am still hesitant.

 

[idris]

I actually just signed up for the second meter from Pepco. Turns out I was wrong in my earlier post. The second meter is free and installation is free. You can see the discounted off-peak prices on page 64 here. I usually pay about 8cents/kwh, and off-peak is 3.1cents (summer) or 3.6cents (winter), so that sounds like a pretty nice discount.

I chose the second meter because I already had an EVSE installed, and I am not a "SOS" customer (that is, I get power generation services from a service other than Pepco. In my case because I buy green power from Arcadia Power)

They already looked at my house and approved everything, but I haven't gotten it installed yet. Installation is in about 2 weeks.

 

[sacks]

I am at the same point in the process as you, approved but not yet installed, but somehow I am paying 12.5c/kwh with WGE 100% wind energy vs your 8 or 3 cents! Are you doing green PIV? If so, it doesn't look like a discount for you although maybe my math is off: off peak summer is 10 cents, off peak winter is 8.4 cents.

 

[TEConnor]

Just wanted to update with my data points for the MD incentives:
- Filed my request June 1, received the check July 25.
- Filed my HOV request same day (June 1) received it early July (~ three weeks faster than incentive check).

I also installed and got the permit for a level 2 EVSE and received my rebate on that as well (half installed cost). Charger rebate arrived in early June, two weeks after filing in early mid-May.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[sacks]

Has anyone received MD rebate without having sent in proof of permit for the work?

 

[TEConnor]

Has anyone received MD rebate without having sent in proof of permit for the work?

They seem to make a point of requesting to see the permit in the application. I would not recommend filing for the charger rebate w/o the permit because if the State contacts your permitting service (county/city) then you might have a bit of a headache getting the approval/permit/fine sorted out. This is one of the cases where asking permission is better than forgiveness, imho. It's still possible to seek the permit and inspection if you have this installed if there wasn't serious rough-in work done that is now covered up. While technically one mustn't close-up and tie-in before inspection, if your install still appears in 'rough-in' condition and you do not technically have it connected at the time of inspection (ie, one disconnects the wire at the panel/breaker before inspection), then the permitting folks will usually be happy to have the business and chance to inspect. On the otherhand, with inspections can come a whole host of issues (for me, I had to install a few new CO detectors in the house, which is now a point of review for all Mont Co mechanical/electrical residential inspections...happy to do it, but surprised that they were looking at this on an exterior charger install).

Cheers,
Tim

 

[TEConnor]

A hypothetical about the Pepco PIV pilot:

We are a net-meter (solar) house and were contacted by Pepco about joining their PIV charging pilot. I think they might have gotten our contact info from the State via the charger rebate app, but I didn't ask. The point of my post is to inquire if anyone else has done the PIV pilot with solar/net-metering. At present we're not driving much (have averaged about ~ 500 miles per month and just less than 100 kWh per month w/ some public charging). We are also projecting to break even on Generation vs Consumption this year. Since Pepco doesn't refund us anything if we generate more from solar than we consume, our original thought on EVs, in addition to the obvious fun of the eGolf, was that it would be a nice way to get the most from the net metering cap. It seems to me that IF we agree to install the second meter separate from our Net meter that we would and could only 'purchase' that power (at a reduced rate) and not benefit there from solar. We'd be paying to install the meter and then paying for the privilege of paying to charge the car, as opposed to using our excess solar under the cap. If you can get through my convoluted logic, is there something I'm missing about this charging pilot program?

Cheers,
Tim

 

[miimura]

A hypothetical about the Pepco PIV pilot:

We are a net-meter (solar) house and were contacted by Pepco about joining their PIV charging pilot. I think they might have gotten our contact info from the State via the charger rebate app, but I didn't ask. The point of my post is to inquire if anyone else has done the PIV pilot with solar/net-metering. At present we're not driving much (have averaged about ~ 500 miles per month and just less than 100 kWh per month w/ some public charging). We are also projecting to break even on Generation vs Consumption this year. Since Pepco doesn't refund us anything if we generate more from solar than we consume, our original thought on EVs, in addition to the obvious fun of the eGolf, was that it would be a nice way to get the most from the net metering cap. It seems to me that IF we agree to install the second meter separate from our Net meter that we would and could only 'purchase' that power (at a reduced rate) and not benefit there from solar. We'd be paying to install the meter and then paying for the privilege of paying to charge the car, as opposed to using our excess solar under the cap. If you can get through my convoluted logic, is there something I'm missing about this charging pilot program?

Cheers,
Tim

You are right to be skeptical of the benefit in your situation. When I built my house two years ago, I did not put in two meters because my utility did not have any Net Meter Aggregation in place at that time. If I had separated the car charging from the house, I would not be able to offset the car charging with solar. So, you need to ask the utility specifically about your situation.

I did a usage and rate analysis for a user on another forum and found that the PG&E EV Sub-Metering pilot would save him a significant amount of money. The reason is that he has a relatively small solar system and two EVs. The EV usage pushed him into expensive usage tiers (the more you use, the higher the per kWh price). So, by joining the sub-metering pilot, he would have the EV usage subtracted from his main meter and his household electric bill would go to zero. He would also be able to do unlimited overnight EV charging for about 11c/kWh, but it still probably won't be offset by the solar. In his situation, that was OK because it was still cheaper than putting the whole house on the EV rate plan.

 

[TEConnor]

A hypothetical about the Pepco PIV pilot:

We are a net-meter (solar) house and were contacted by Pepco about joining their PIV charging pilot. I think they might have gotten our contact info from the State via the charger rebate app, but I didn't ask. The point of my post is to inquire if anyone else has done the PIV pilot with solar/net-metering. At present we're not driving much (have averaged about ~ 500 miles per month and just less than 100 kWh per month w/ some public charging). We are also projecting to break even on Generation vs Consumption this year. Since Pepco doesn't refund us anything if we generate more from solar than we consume, our original thought on EVs, in addition to the obvious fun of the eGolf, was that it would be a nice way to get the most from the net metering cap. It seems to me that IF we agree to install the second meter separate from our Net meter that we would and could only 'purchase' that power (at a reduced rate) and not benefit there from solar. We'd be paying to install the meter and then paying for the privilege of paying to charge the car, as opposed to using our excess solar under the cap. If you can get through my convoluted logic, is there something I'm missing about this charging pilot program?

Cheers,
Tim

You are right to be skeptical of the benefit in your situation. When I built my house two years ago, I did not put in two meters because my utility did not have any Net Meter Aggregation in place at that time. If I had separated the car charging from the house, I would not be able to offset the car charging with solar. So, you need to ask the utility specifically about your situation.

I did a usage and rate analysis for a user on another forum and found that the PG&E EV Sub-Metering pilot would save him a significant amount of money. The reason is that he has a relatively small solar system and two EVs. The EV usage pushed him into expensive usage tiers (the more you use, the higher the per kWh price). So, by joining the sub-metering pilot, he would have the EV usage subtracted from his main meter and his household electric bill would go to zero. He would also be able to do unlimited overnight EV charging for about 11c/kWh, but it still probably won't be offset by the solar. In his situation, that was OK because it was still cheaper than putting the whole house on the EV rate plan.

Thanks for the insight and thoughts. I did get a clarification from Pepco that the second meter would be installed at no cost to me, so then it's just a matter of whether it cuts into my unused cap of Gen vs Use. We only have the one EV (and have a new Mini / ICE, so no going back there) and will remain well under the 10,000 mile / year lease. I love driving the eGolf, but driving, in general, in our area is for the birds, so lots of Metro and walking for sanity (so even 7500 miles would be a stretch in a year). I think it's a break-even proposition at best if all I did was charge at home ~ 1500-1700 kWh annually. We will be ~ 2000 kWh under the annual generation cap on our 6.25 kW system w/ out the EVSE. Funny thing is, our installers were trying to push us higher (like 7.5 kW) but their estimates seemed low-ball on Gen and we knew we were making system changes (water heater & dryer to gas) that would put us into a gap situation.


[edit] Well, I'm just a fountain of misinformation these days. Above where I say that in MD you cannot get reimbursed for solar generation in excess of your annual consumption, well that's just flat incorrect. Not sure where I got that idea originally, but the deal is that you just get reimbursed at the off-season rate (once-a-year in April) in MD for excess generation (ie, roughly 1/3-1/2 of the standard electric rate). Hence, I rethought my logic on this all and decided to pursue the PIV for a second meter (since it's a free install via Pepco). The overnight rate is said to be about $0.03-$0.04, so even if I generate excess from solar, the reimbursed rate (~ $0.07) will exceed the overnight charge rate for PIV pilot. Even with a renewable 'rider' (said to be ~ $0.01 per kWh) it makes sense to use the dedicated meter for the EVSE (which I already installed). I have a run-through / meeting with the Pepco electricians this week. I'll update if I learn anything useful. Hopefully it's mostly correct this time![/edit]

Cheers,
Tim

 

[TEConnor]

We had the PIV home inspection this week and received the go-ahead from Pepco (once we sign the formal application). It turns out that they will want to install the second meter next to our existing Net Meter and then simply run a fused disconnect to the EVSE (Siemens Lvl 2). I verified that they would supply a 40 A fused disconnect and would be capable of supplying the 30A requirement. The EE project manager seemed especially competent (given it's Pepco, this contractor was pretty impressive) and flexible on this visit. He was adamant about checking permit approval stickers (which we have for the solar/net-meter and the evse install), but he mentioned that he had to walk away from his earlier appointment on that day because of code approval issues. So note to selves...

Here are the program pricing as of Aug 2015 (including generation, distribution, and transmission):

'Bundled' Summer Off-Peak - $0.08215 total (w/ $0.03118 for generation)
'Bundled' Winter Off-Peak - $0.06594 total (w/ $0.03608 for generation...distribution lower in winter)

A renewable 'adder' is available for $0.0179. Hence, to offset solar renewable, we would be looking at full rates of $0.1005 in summer for off-peak charging and $0.0838 in winter. These are more expensive than what we get paid out (for generation only) from our Solar system if we generate more than we consume (which was $0.08 this past April on our solar 'anniversary' where pepco reimburses for over-generation). It's a conundrum, in a way. I'd be breaking even or saving a pittance with a non-renewable second meter, but losing a tiny bit with a renewable adder. However, thinking down the road, literally, if we eventually get a longer range vehicle (we're leasing this eGolf and plan to upgrade to a longer range in 2.5 years) requiring more charge, that would certainly put us over the top on our solar generation balance. Hence, for the sake of future expansion (and given that this pilot program looks to expire in the near future), we will likely go for the (free installation) second meter, even w/ the renewable adder.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[2doors]

Make sure you look into the pepco plug in program

http://www.pepco.com/my-home/save-money-and-conserve-energy/plug-in-vehicle-charging-pilot/

Sounds like a lot of DC 'burb people in here. Any B-more area owners around? Does BGE offer any similar programs? Guess I'll have to look.

 

[TEConnor]

Make sure you look into the pepco plug in program

http://www.pepco.com/my-home/save-money-and-conserve-energy/plug-in-vehicle-charging-pilot/

Sounds like a lot of DC 'burb people in here. Any B-more area owners around? Does BGE offer any similar programs? Guess I'll have to look.

http://www.bge.com/smartenergy/pluginelectricvehicles/Pages/Rate-Options.aspx

Looks like there is an informal PIV program for BGE in and around B'more. Let us know if you learn anything useful!

Cheers,
Tim