“Together we make great things happen.” That was the motto for the South Shore Clean Cities Annual Meeting, held February 18, 2014. Organizations dedicated to a greener environment gathered to celebrate all of the steps towards cleaner skies achieved last year, as well as to learn what is to come.
NIPSCO chose the annual meeting as a forum to unveil some exciting news. In 2012, the utility company kicked off their IN-charge EV Program, with the goal to increase awareness and education about electric vehicles (EV) in order to promote electric in hopes of reducing harmful emissions and gasoline usage. Phase I of the program focused on the residential impact, through charging stations “At Home.”
Through a $1,650 incentive for customers who install charging stations for their electric vehicles at home, along with providing free electricity to those customers between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am, NIPSCO’s goal is to see 250 EV customers by January of 2015. Currently, the residential program has 103 customers who have completed the process, with several more who have begun taking steps to completion. “We do expect to be at the 250 mark by next year,” stated Kevin Kirkham, NIPSCO Manager of Business Development.
The incentives offered were very purposeful in driving interest in the program. “NIPSCO’s goal was to cover the majority of the cost of those installs and sure enough, the average cost for residential customers is averaging just under $1900. The $1650 credit up front covers just about all of those costs. Customers on average had to pay just under $300 up front,” shared Kirkham.
The free electricity offer has also seen great success. “NIPSCO wanted to do this to try and see if we could get the electricity consumption to go into the off-peak hours and sure enough, you give the incentive, consumers react to it,” Kirkham continued.
Due to the momentum the utility is seeing from Phase I, Phase II “Around Town” is ready to take off. “Beginning tomorrow, NIPSCO is going to be launching Phase II of our Electric Vehicle program for the public charging stations,” Kirkham said.
Phase II is “for non-residential customers to put charging stations all throughout the territory,” he stated. “The incentives are for non-residential customers to help introduce those EV charging stations throughout the territory as well as to provide a charging station to reduce range anxiety for EV owners.”
NIPSCO will offer $1 million in incentives for those businesses interested in installing charging stations, in an effort to make it more affordable to provide public charging capabilities. Two levels of incentives will be made available, depending on the charge unit installed.
With both levels, NIPSCO will pay for a 2-year subscription to ChargePoint Commercial Network Software. The software includes a mobile app for customers, which provides a map of nearby charging stations, as well as the ability to see if the station is in use or not.
“The great thing about the public charging phase of this program is that it’s really going to help reduce that range anxiety,” shared Kathleen Szot, External Communications Manager for NIPSCO. “When you have an electric vehicle, it’s not the same as gasoline powered where there’s a station at every corner to fill up. The goal for the public charging is to make it a bit more accessible and add on to not just home charging but also public charging.”
The program officially launches February 19, 2014. For more information, visit NIPSCO.com/INCharge