SRP EV Flex Charge Program

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Anvesh11

Anvesh11

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I filled in the application again yesterday and I got a confirmation email that I am now enrolled today.
The credit will be applied within two billing cycles.

Ford Mustang Mach-E SRP EV Flex Charge Program C18C1831-B324-47D7-9B5D-6D03FA2DA730
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TheVirtualTim

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My utility (DTE Energy) has the rebate on buying the ChargePoint and EnelX JuiceBox *because* they support the OCPP protocol.

They launched their "DTE Charging Forward" program which lets them control charging. They can pause charging when demand is high. But if they are getting more energy from renewables then consumers are using they can also request that your car *start* charging (although they wont exceed the max charge % that you set).

But the interesting bit is how they do it... they don't use OCPP to control the charger. Instead they've partnered with Ford (and I think other manufacturers as well... but that's easier for DTE since they are in Detroit). They send the request to change the car's charging schedule to Ford... Ford pushes the new schedule to the car and this causes the car to stop charging. When the event is over, they push the original schedule back to the car (whatever schedule you created).

So in the end ... it really doesn't matter what charger you have.

BTW, my program doesn't give much in the way of financial rewards (and frankly they need to change some things). They give beta participants (ie. me) a $50 gift card to enroll. After a few months (I should be getting this any day now) they will send us a survey and upon completion of the survey, another $50 gift card.

Several times during the program they've had events where they asked me to charge the car to absorb excess power from the grid -- but in the middle of the day. The *problem* is I am on a time-of-use rate plan. If I charge at night or on weekends I pay 11¢/kWh. If I charge during the day on weekdays ... it's 24¢/kWh (normal rate is about 16¢/kWh). I am encouraged to charge off-peak with lower rates ... but punished for charging during peak periods with much higher rates. When they send a request to charge the car during the day (I've had several of these) I asked them if they are going to charge me 24¢/kWh if I do ... and they confirmed that since I am on that rate plan that I WILL pay more for the energy. I told them "no thanks". I'm not about to pay more than double to help them shed excess power from the grid.

The "Charing Forward" program doesn't coordinate with their EV Rate Plan ... and it needs to if they want to encourage customers to help them out.
 

macchiaz-o

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My utility (DTE Energy) has the rebate on buying the ChargePoint and EnelX JuiceBox *because* they support the OCPP protocol.
Ford markets the FCCS as supporting OCPP 1.6. I've not seen any disclosures about it in the box, in the app, or in my Ford account. I'd hoped that I was going to be able to experiment with the APIs, and maybe extract charging logs (at minimum). So it's just yet another regret of my decision to buy the FCCS rather than the ChargePoint.

I'm also unaware of any utility partnerships. Do you know of any?

the interesting bit is how they do it... they don't use OCPP to control the charger. Instead they've partnered with Ford (and I think other manufacturers as well... but that's easier for DTE since they are in Detroit). They send the request to change the car's charging schedule to Ford... Ford pushes the new schedule to the car and this causes the car to stop charging. When the event is over, they push the original schedule back to the car (whatever schedule you created).
This seems... foolish. Ford doesn't reliably let us set our own charging preferences in FordPass. I don't think I'd have enough faith in letting a utility manipulate it from their end, especially if a scenario could arise where I'd want to override their demand response event because I really really need the vehicle to charge for a planned trip.

In addition, DTE can reasonably know that your registered EVSE is within their power network, but they can't necessarily know that about the vehicle itself. You could be traveling in your electric vehicle. Or on the edge of their coverage. We have two major providers in Phoenix, Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project, and some number of smaller ones, e.g. City of Mesa Electric. Each residence is assigned to only one electric provider, but the next neighborhood over could be serviced by one of the competing utilities.

The "Charing Forward" program doesn't coordinate with their EV Rate Plan ... and it needs to if they want to encourage customers to help them out.
Absolutely. On my rate plan, the difference between "On-Peak" can be as much as 3.8x more expensive than "Super Off-Peak" during our peak summer rate season.

Hopefully DTE is monitoring customer behaviors and will make adjustments to future rate plan offerings based on what they're learn now. My utility (SRP) has been doing this for years with what they call "experimental rate plans" and "demand response studies" and the like. They also periodically survey customers during the studies and get feedback that way, too.
 

Jax_GT

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Bringing this back to the front in case anyone has tried recently. I tried back in July when my car was about to arrive. Had the shipping damage so I didn't actually charge until December. I was in pending status from July until January. Figured it might have been my issue since I hadn't charged for so long.
On 1/4/23, I canceled and resubmitted and nothing. Today I've canceled and resubmitted again. I'm on the EV Plan so hopefully it works this time. Last time I tried emailing them they sent me a number that took me to a solar rep who told me I'd get 250 off the purchase of a charger but had no idea about this program. Oddly frustrating when the Thermostat program was so easy.
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