Virtual Peaker and ICF Partner with Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation to Launch EV ChargeSmart Program

Virtual Peaker

The EV ChargeSmart Program aims to achieve cost savings and grid resilience by encouraging participants to voluntarily adjust their EV charging patterns and earn year-round incentives for charging vehicles during off-peak hours.

Posted February 19, 2024

February 15, 2024; Louisville, KY – Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based SaaS company empowering modern utilities with the friendliest distributed energy platform on the planet, and ICF (NASDAQ:ICFI), a global consulting and technology services provider, collaborated with Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation (Central Hudson) to launch the EV ChargeSmart Program. EV ChargeSmart aims to achieve cost savings and grid resilience by encouraging participants to adjust their EV charging patterns voluntarily. 

Central Hudson is a regulated transmission and distribution utility serving over 315,000 electric and 90,000 natural gas customers in New York State’s Mid-Hudson River Valley, from suburban New York City to Albany. 

Virtual Peaker’s distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) suite, Shift, connects to at-home electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) or EV telematics and adjusts the charging of a participant’s device to ease the stress on the grid and benefit the community.

“We launched the EV ChargeSmart Program to support Central Hudson’s electric grid during periods of high electricity demand,” explained Marwa Chowdhury, Associate Program Manager at Central Hudson. 

The EV ChargeSmart Program offers eligible customers a $25 incentive for enrolling their EVSE and/or EV and ongoing participation incentives based on their off-peak charging habits. Participants located in load-growth areas (areas where distributed energy resources can be used to defer or eliminate the need for upgrades to the grid) may be eligible to earn additional incentives by responding to conservation events during the summer season of June through September. During a conservation event, Central Hudson will use Virtual Peaker’s Shift suite to pause or reduce participants’ charging sessions to balance the demand on the grid.

CLICK HERE to read the full press release.