General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric are running a deal to give new EV buyers a free charger, get paid to charge, and save the grid all at the same time. What’s not to love?
Much has been said about the strain on the grid that could be produced by EVs. If we suddenly put all the energy use that cars represent onto a grid that’s already overloaded, won’t that be an issue?
In a naive view perhaps… but in fact, electric cars can help to save the grid by smoothing out peaks and valleys in demand, making it more consistent throughout the day.
Currently, electric grids fluctuate throughout the day, usually somewhat predictably. People use more electricity when it’s hot or cold out (to run HVAC), and more electricity in the evening hours when doing chores like cooking and laundry. And typically people use the least electricity at night, when they’re asleep.
But it’s harder to run power plants for just a couple hours every day, which means electricity is expensive in those hours of peaks in demand, and cheaper in the troughs in demand.
The beauty of electric cars, though, is that they have large batteries and therefore can be charged at whenever is the most opportune time throughout the day. This is usually nighttime, but not always (for example, in Australia, they have so much solar they’re literally giving it away during the day).
This is why utilities often offer “time of use” rates, giving cheaper electricity at off-peak times. Many EV drivers have taken advantage of this to charge up for cheap, making driving an EV even more comparatively cheap at a time when unnecessary conflict drives gas prices higher everywhere.
But sometimes time of use rates aren’t enough, so another concept has come forward: managed charging.
Remote-controlled charging can save the grid and make you money
This utilizes a constant internet connection, either from the charger or the EV charging on it, so let a utility remotely control your charge sessions, charging when there is an excess of electricity on the grid. In practice, you tell the system how full you want your car to be and when, and then the system handles the rest.
In return, utilities offer some sort of incentive. It saves them money to do this, so they pass the savings on to you. This is usually in the form of a credit on your electricity bill.
PG&E, in Northern and Central California, has a program for this which it calls its “Charge Manager” program. Other utilities have a similar program, like SoCal Edison’s Charge Ready program. They usually require a specific type of charger or car that supports the protocols used to manage your charging sessions.
These programs differ from “bidirectional charging” or V2G/V2H programs you might have heard of, as they don’t actually require you to send any energy back to the grid, merely to wait to charge until the times that the grid wants you to charge. So it’s a lot easier in terms of installing equipment, as you really just need a charger that can be controlled remotely.
And now, PG&E and GM Energy are pairing up to offer an incentive on new GM EVs that helps get them on a managed charging program like this
GM and PG&E’s new deal pays you for helping with grid resilience
The new deal today, which GM is calling the “Smart Charge Bundle,” offers a free GM PowerShift ($1,399-$1,999) or PowerUp2 ($899) home charger when a new GM EV is purchased from a participating GM dealer in Northern or Central California by a buyer who has PG&E residential service. You’ll have to pay for installation, and use GM’s selected installation partner (Qmerit) to install the equipment.
Then, once you have the participating charger, as long as you have OnStar (GM’s connected vehicle software), you’ll get a $15 monthly bill credit for participation in the Charge Manager program, and an additional up to $50 per month based on how much of your charging gets shifted onto optimal times.
The deal covers basically all of GM’s electric model line – any Chevrolet, Cadillac or GMC EV, and will run until February 2027 or until the program hits its capacity.
If you’re looking for a GM EV and live in PG&E’s service area, you can use our links below to reach out to local dealers about these popular EVs. But definitely ask if they’re participating in the Smart Charge Bundle program before you go all in:
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