From 2012 to 2016, Drive Clean Indiana served as program administrator for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s (NIPSCO’s) IN-Charge At Home/Around Town Program. Drive Clean Indiana assisted NIPSCO in the deployment and management of more than 250 home charging stations and 159 public charging stations in 60 locations throughout Northern Indiana.
Phase I of the project, which represented a $1 million NIPSCO investment, began in 2012 with the At Home program, which paid up to $1.650 for Level II home charging stations for the first 250 customers to enroll in the program.
The At Home program provided free home charging from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. through January 2015 and 10 public charging stations at four NIPSCO locations.
Phase II of the project, which represented another $1 million NIPSCO investment, began in 2014 with the Around Town Program and provided incentives to commercial/industrial customers to help introduce electric vehicle charging across Northwest Indiana. The project aimed to reduce range anxiety for electric vehicle drivers, make the process easy for the consumer, allow the market to decide where charging stations should be installed and assess trends in charging data.
The Around Town program provided a free Level II charger and half off the installation up to $3,000 and half off the total cost of a Level III charger up to $37,500. Program participants were eligible to receive up to two stations (four ports) per NIPSCO account and were required to designate electric vehicle-only parking spaces. NIPSCO covered the cost of a two-year subscription to ChargePoint Network service. Station owners were able to choose whether or not to charge for use after the free charging period expires in 2019.
The IN-Charge program was offered as part of a Supplemental Environmental Project under the NIPSCO New Source Review NOV settlement.