New GMP electric vehicle charging rates help customers save money

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Media Contact
Kristin Kelly, (802) 318-0872

Colchester, Vt. — Driving electric now costs less and is more convenient with Green Mountain Power’s (GMP) two new discounted charging rates. The new off-peak EV rates approved by regulators are more than 20 percent less than traditional residential power rates, making charging up an EV, on average, equivalent to paying about $1 per gallon of gas. The rates are designed to help reduce costs for all GMP customers.

Transportation is the number one cause of carbon emissions in Vermont, so by partnering with customers there can be even more progress.

Fred C., a GMP customer who switched to driving an EV last year, just signed up for one of GMP’s discounted charging rates. “All electric drivers should sign up! I love my EV and the new GMP charging rate will helping me save even more,” he said. “I love not having to stop for gas and it just makes sense that charging at home is convenient and cost-effective.”

And now there are even more reasons to go electric, as GMP also announced new discounts for GMP customers who can save more than $2,500 off the purchase price when they buy or lease all electric Chevy Bolts at Alderman’s Chevrolet in Rutland. The savings can be combined with up to $2,500 in EV rebates from GMP and customers can also save even more with offers including a rebate up to $8,500 from General Motors and EV rebates from the state of Vermont. All of these savings could add up to $20,000 off a new Chevy Bolt.

“We brought in extra Bolts because we know this new package of discounts, rebates and now great EV charging rates will mean a lot of interest from customers. Our experience is that when customers switch to EVs they just love them,” said Mark Alderman of Alderman’s Chevrolet in Rutland. “GMP customers will get the same discounts on Bolts that General Motors employees can get, making now a great time to go electric.”

GMP already offers many ways to make it easier for customers to switch to EV driving, by reducing costs and increasing convenience. The new rates join rebates offers up to $2,500

when customers buy or lease their vehicle, plus GMP will give new EV owners a free Level 2 home charger, which can charge your EV in just a few hours. You can learn more about GMP’s EV offers here: https://greenmountainpower.com/rebates-programs/electric-vehicles/.

“This is a very exciting launch, showing GMP’s commitment to deliver for customers with these new ways to save. Creating affordability by leveraging innovation to help customers is at the heart of what this team does,” said Mari McClure, GMP’s president and CEO. “Partnering with local businesses like Alderman’s in Rutland shows that working together we can achieve results for customers.”

More details on the new EV charging rates are here: https://greenmountainpower.com/rebates-programs/electric-vehicles/ev-charging-rates/ . Customers can sign up for the new rates by calling GMP during normal business hours Monday through Friday at 888-835-4672.

About Green Mountain Power

Green Mountain Power (GMP) serves approximately 266,000 residential and business customers in Vermont and is partnering with them to improve lives and transform communities. GMP is focused on a new way of doing business to meet the needs of customers with integrated energy services that help people use less energy and save money, while continuing to generate clean, cost-effective and reliable power in Vermont. GMP is the first utility in the world to get a B Corp certification, meeting rigorous social, environmental, accountability and transparency standards and committing to use business as a force for good. GMP earned a spot on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World list four years in a row (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). J.D. Power’s 2018 and 2019 rankings put GMP among top utilities for customer satisfaction. In 2019 and 2020 GMP was named “One of the Best Places to Work in Vermont” by Vermont Business Magazine and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, and was the winner of the Deane C. Davis Outstanding Vermont Business of the Year Award in 2019.

Image courtesy of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources

11 thoughts on “New GMP electric vehicle charging rates help customers save money

  1. What ever happened to the concept that a public service board was to make sure rates are fair, and that utility companies operated with costs that were reasonable, prudent and necessary? — and how come they are not watching anymore and allowing everything a utility wants to do?

  2. Electrifying the VT economy, at electric rates at about 2 to 3 times existing rates, would be a good deal for GMP, a French/Canadian company (profits sent abroad).

    GWSA will have all sorts of subsidy $bennies for those who jump into solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, heat pumps, etc.

    The MEMBERS of EAN just love GWSA, because it will provide guaranteed business prosperity and profits for DECADES.

    The “campaign contributions” finally paid off big time.

    Everyone else will be the losers.

    NO ONE will see even the tiniest a change in the Climate, because VT is just a flea on an elephant’s rear.

    The Vermont House overrode Governor Scott’s veto of GWSA, and sent it to the Vermont Senate for an override vote
    GSWA converts the aspirational goals of the CEP, into mandated goals, with penalties, taxes, fees and surcharges.
    GWSA had been called “must pass this Session”. See URL
    https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-s-global-warming-solutions-act-a-disaster-in-the-making

    In Vermont, the only thing that makes any sense is to stop “emulating” California, immediately scrap GWSA, and concentrate on:

    1) Energy conservation
    2) Energy efficiency
    3) Building net-zero-energy, and energy-surplus houses and other buildings, by the thousands, each year. See Appendix
    4) Provide incentives to buy vehicles that get more than 35 mpg, EPA combined; the more above the limit, the greater the incentive.
    5) Charge annual fees, paid at time of registration, on existing and new vehicles that get less than 25 mpg, EPA combined; the more below the limit, the greater the fee.

    The above 4 items would save money for Vermonters, and make the state economy more competitive
    Most of the other energy measures are just expensively subsidized hogwash that would not make one iota of difference regarding climate change.

  3. Where does GMP justify the decrease in revenue from these price incentives? Or is the revenue loss offset when GMP raises its rates for everyone else?

  4. First..
    This is a media release from representatives acting for GMP so this infomercial certainly paints the most rosy picture of GMP with no hint of any real accounting of the total cost to VT citizens of this initiative (and including others in force).
    Second…..
    Please read Willemstad Post’s comment above as it outlines the folly of GMP’s new program.
    Third….
    Embedded in the press release above are the germs of why is GMP doing this.
    The company has aligned itself tooth and nail with the Socialist Progressive Platform that is Vermont. It is their goal, as it is with any company, to grow their business over time and continue to gain favor from the bureaucrats that regulate them (and, apparently help grow Aldermans’ Chevrolet in Rutland).
    Please reread the last paragraph “About GMP”.
    Fourth….
    This extremely cheap power to run ones’ car does not allow for any compensation to the state highway fund to build and repair the transportation infrastructure as the Substantial per-gallon Tax on gasoline is supposed to do. Once again, the well-to-do that are able to buy a Chevy Bolt from Aldermans, and get a free charger, etc. will not put one penny towards the roads they drive on. And, once again, this is at the expense of the bulk of the taxpayers.

    • GMP may be wedded to the renewable energy polices that are tied to the far left Progressive legislation originating in Montpelier…….But I doubt it has much to do with socialism…….It is motivated by pure capitalism.

      Capitalism tied to selling more electrical power to EV owners to generate revenue and profits for GMP at the expense of the fossil fuel industry. GMP can wave the flag of saving the planet from global warming, but in the end it’s all about selling more electricity, which is pure capitalism……In this case its power for EVs, next its power for heat pumps and what ever else arises from the Global Warming Solutions Act in the event the Legislature over rides the Governor’s veto.

      It’s about the money…….Making more of it for GMP and its foreign owners…….It’s about sending money out of Vermont to Canada, the very issue the activists and advocates harp about when speaking of fossil fuel dollars

  5. We are at the mercy of the progressives at GMP as well as the legislature. The walls are closing in rapidly. It feels like the pod people are surrounding us.

    • As another commenter noted about her own state of NH – “We’re surrounded that simplifies things” lol.

  6. As far as I knew, I may be wrong but, EVs pay no tax that pays for the roads like the gas tax. If taat is not break then I don’t know what is. Now they want us to subsidize their fuel.

  7. If GMP is offering discounts to EV drivers……..Who’s paying?………Wouldn’t we all be paying as GMP is simply shifting the cost of subsidizing EV drivers to all GMP customers?

    Looks like the EV discount is just another hidden cost that lurks in the operation of the Global Warming Solution Act. A lurking cost that ultimately reaches into the pockets of all Vermonters.

    • GMP would sell about 3200 of additional kWh to an EV owner of a small electric SUV, who drives about 10,000 miles per year. That owner likely would have a charger in his garage.

      Sounds boutique-like to me, another give-away to mostly upper-income households.

      If I install 3 heat pumps, turnkey capital cost $24,000, to heat/cool my entire house, will I get a discount on about 8000 kWh?

      My energy cost savings are minimal, and if I amortize the heat pumps over 15 years, I would have an annual loss of about $1800 per year, not counting and service calls and parts.

      Why the discrimination? See below.

      VERMONT CO2 REDUCTION OF ASHPs IS BASED ON MISREPRESENTATIONS
      http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-co2-reduction-of-ashps-is-based-on-misrepresentations

      1) The VT CEP has a goal to install 35,000 ASHPs at end 2025
      About 17,717 units were installed at end 2009, per VT-DPS.
      The current installation rate is about 2900 units/y
      It appears the CEP goal will be achieved.

      2) Per CADMUS survey, about 81.5% of ASHPs are single-zone systems (one ASHP/site with one head).
      The rest were: 1) Multi-zone (one ASHP/site with more than one head, or 2) two ASHPs/site, each with one or two heads.
      Heating/cooling an entire house, 2000 ft2 or larger, would require 2 or 3 ASHPs, each with 2 heads. See examples in Appendix.

      3) An owner in an average, 2000 ft2 VT house, with one ASHP, one head, on average, would have energy cost savings of $208/y, but would have a financial loss of $178/y, if the $4500 turnkey capital cost were amortized at 3.5% over 15 years, not counting service calls and parts. See tables 5 and 6
      Fuel displacement: 27.56%
      CO2 reduction: 2.389 Mt/y, or 21.0%

      4) An owner in an average, 2000 ft2 VT house, with two ASHPs, each with two heads, on average, would have energy cost savings of $178/y, but would have a financial loss of $1,366/y, if the $18,000 turnkey capital cost were amortized at 3.5% over 15 years, not counting service calls and parts. See tables 5 and 6
      Fuel displacement: 100%
      CO2 reduction: 7.750 Mt/y, or 68.0%
      http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/cost-savings-of-air-source-heat-pumps-are-negative-in-vermont

      5) Owners with ASHPs in well-insulated/well-sealed houses, and in highly insulated/highly sealed houses, and Passivhaus-standard houses would have an annual financial gain, even after amortizing, not counting service calls and parts. See table 5.

      6) “Weatherizing” average VT houses, costing about $10,000/site, would not make these houses suitable for heating 100% with ASHPs.
      “Deep retrofits” of average VT houses, likely costing $30,000+/site, would make most of these houses suitable for 100% heating with ASHPs

      7) Vermont needs to build thousands of highly insulated/highly sealed houses each year to ensure: 1) Annual cost savings for owners and 2) A CO2 reduction of about 80% versus existing conditions.

    • Maybe in the future we will just throw our checkbooks, our credit cards, our wallets,
      and our paychecks into the” history hole”

      And work for nothing, or do nothing, and simply accept whatever the gov’t chooses to provide
      – if we are among the ‘chosen”

      Out on a limb? Maybe, maybe not!

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