Every customer you can’t enroll is a kilowatt you can’t dispatch

This is a piece written for utility companies, but it touches on something that could eventually show up as a program you're invited to join. It's about "managed charging" and similar programs, where a utility lets you plug in your electric vehicle, home battery, or solar system and lets the utility shift when it draws or sends power, usually to avoid straining the grid at peak times. In exchange, some programs pay participants.

The piece argues utilities are leaving money and grid benefits on the table because they aren't signing up enough eligible customers, not because the technology can't support more devices. One research estimate, from ev.energy and The Brattle Group, put the value of managed EV charging at up to $575 per actively managed vehicle per year, though that's a ceiling that depends on people actually enrolling and staying enrolled. The piece also notes that regulators in California and the Northeast increasingly expect these programs to reach renters and multi-unit apartment dwellers, not just single-family homeowners, and that supporting older, more affordable used EVs helps reach more households.

For you, the takeaway is mostly to watch for this: if your utility offers a managed charging or flexibility program for an EV, battery, or solar setup, it may be worth checking whether you're eligible and what the enrollment process looks like, since availability and payouts vary by utility and state.