Heads up to Eversource electric customers in Massachusetts! If you have an electric vehicle (EV), you can now enroll in a new managed charging program offered by Eversource and earn rewards for charging off-peak. Eversource proposed this program way back in December 2024 as part of a mid-term modification of its current EV program (we wrote about this in February 2025), and the DPU issued its order in October 2025. Now, the program is finally live.

About The Program

Enroll with an eligible vehicle and/or eligible smart charging station, earn a $50 enrollment incentive, and then get the chance to earn $10/month. There are two options:

1. Baseline Tier: Earn $10 a month if you do more than 90% of your charging off-peak. (You must complete at least one 15-minute home charging session a month to earn your reward.)

2. Advanced Tier: Earn $10 a month if you set a charging schedule and override it no more than twice. (You must complete at least two 15-minute home charging sessions a month to earn your reward.)

For both tiers, peak hours are considered 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM, so “off-peak” is considered anytime from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

To find out if you are eligible, check this list of eligible devices. For more information and to enroll, visit the program website.

(Reminder: National Grid continues to offer the Off-Peak Charging Rebate program it has offered for years.)

Our Thoughts

We have been advocating for EV managed charging programs for a long time. It’s in all of our interests – even those of us without EVs – if EV drivers charge off-peak. The more EV drivers charge off-peak, the more the fixed costs of the system are divided among more kilowatt-hours of energy, putting downward pressure on rates. (You can learn more here.) Sending price signals to shift load from on-peak to off-peak times is broadly called “load management”; in the EV world, it often comes in the form of “managed charging” programs.

Back when Eversource proposed its EV programs in 2021, we urged the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to have them launch a managed charging program. The DPU unfortunately did not rule in our favor, but in the intervening years, it’s only gotten clearer and clearer that the Commonwealth needs a comprehensive managed charging program. The state’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council (EVICC) dedicated a whole chapter to it in its August 2025 Second Assessment, and the Department of Energy Resources’ (DOER’s) draft Peak Potential study highlights EVs as a priority area for load management programs.

Though we’re glad to see Eversource finally offer a managed charging program to drivers, we don’t think its structure or scope is ambitious enough for the moment. DOER’s draft Peak Potential study makes it clear that, to maximize cost-effective load management, incentives must be based on the actual benefits to the grid – the avoided costs of building out more transmission and distribution, the avoided costs of contracting for future capacity, and the avoided costs of generating electricity at high-cost times vs low-cost times. Eversource did not justify its calculations in these terms when it proposed the $10/month incentive.

Recently, both National Grid and Eversource proposed new EV programs for 2027 through 2030. We submitted comments, both on our own and with other members of the Massachusetts Zero Emission Vehicle Coalition. In both cases, we stressed that the utilities’ managed charging programs must maximize all cost-effective load management, per EVICC’s and DOER’s recommendations. It remains to be seen what the DPU decides on this later this year.

One thing is clear: Load management will only become more important as electricity demand grows, for resilience, affordability, and emissions reductions.

P.S. For more on this topic, see our recent related webinar on smart meters!