EV Club of CT – No Cost Smart Load Manager Program for CT EV Owners

Free registration required here.

• Meeting Date/Time – Tuesday, May 19, 7PM-8PM

EV Club Zoom Meeting With Stepwise Electric, Co-Presented with PACE

Some people seeking to install a home EV charger find that they do not have the capacity in their panel to handle it. It depends upon how much electric service you have, the age of the panel, whether it has room for another 240 volt appliance, and how much existing draw you have from your electric appliances. According to EnergySage, this challenge affects as many as 20% of people looking to install a level 2 charger. Upgrade costs run in a range of $4000 – $10,000.

Tap Load Management System

The good news is that increasingly there are solutions that can avoid costly upgrades. The Stepwise Tap installs between the EV charger and the electrical panel. It enables the addition of a high-draw appliances such as a charger, without exceeding the limits of the available electric service or the capacity of the panel. It does this via dynamic throttling (e.g. lowering the draw of an EV charger), or load-shedding (e.g. temporarily turning off the appliance).

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has approved a pilot (applies to Eversourse and UI customers) that would pay for the Stepwise Tap Smart Load Manager for 100 residential participants.

Pilot Participants Get the Stepwise Tap and Installation Costs Covered

The Stepwise Tap has been approved for a pilot project on the Innovative Energy Solutions docket. 100 residents, either living in a single-family home or small multi-family (2-4 units), are eligible to participate. While the device has applications beyond EVs, this pilot is focused on homes that are installing or upgrading a 240 volt charger. The cost of the hardware, normally about $800, plus the installation would be 100% covered by the program. (The cost of the charger is not part of this program.)

• Participating in managed charging is required of anyone taking the incentive.
• Unlike with the charger incentive program, any charger can be used.

Speakers

Stepwise CEO, Jane Chen, and CMO Holly Lichtenfeld will tell us about how the product works and how to become part of the pilot. These are their bios.

Jane Chen, CEO & Co-founder (Linkedin)

Jane has 10 years of experience in business, electrification, and startups, where she worked across Asia and North America. She fell in love with electrification technology through working on international expansions for an EV charger manufacturer, where she saw the opportunity to do well and do good. She later ran a home EV installation platform, where she saw the deeper inefficiencies surrounding the electric panel, causing her to take action to start Stepwise. Jane studied chemistry and business operations at UPenn/ Wharton, has an MBA from MIT Sloan, and is an avid adventurer of the outdoors.

Holly Lichtenfeld, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer (Linkedin)

Holly has worked in renewable energy, sustainability, and electrification for 20+ years. She is especially interested in making sustainable solutions understandable, accessible, and growing the best solutions in the market. The start-ups that Holly has co-founded and or led as part of the executive team have gained acceptance into prestigious innovation incubators, including Idealab, IDEO, and NextEra Energy/FPL’s 35 Mules. She serves on various non-profit boards, including Solar for Women, which offers solar technical training to grow the trade workforce. She owns a 2019 Tesla and is excited to see how high the mileage can go over the coming years.

There will be time for Q&A.

Again, registration link here.