Charging After Plug-in: What to Expect in Smart Mode / Exemptions

Created by Patrik Horváth, Modified on Sun, 15 Feb at 9:05 PM by Patrik Horváth

Why Your Car Charges Briefly Before Pausing

It is normal to see your car begin charging immediately after you plug in. This is the "communication window" where the app establishes a connection with your equipment and calculates the best schedule.

The 15-Minute Tolerance Window

The ev.energy app generally takes between 0 and 15 minutes to send the "STOP" command to your vehicle or charger. During this time, the app is performing several critical tasks:

Establishing a secure connection with your hardware.
Reviewing the current grid forecast from Eversource.
Calculating the most efficient charging schedule based on your "Ready By" time.

Will This Affect My Incentives?

No. We have designed the program rules to account for this initial communication window.

Automatic Exemption: Any energy delivered during the initial 15-minute connection period while in Smart Mode is automatically exempt from peak-usage penalties. Only override sessions count against your incentives.
The "2x"per month override Rule: Remember, the program allows for up to two peak-period override sessions per month (lasting longer than 15 minutes) before eligibility is impacted.

Automatic Peak-Usage Exemption

To put you at ease: Any charging that occurs in Smart Mode is automatically exempt from peak-usage penalties.

Even if the app takes a few minutes (or in rare cases, longer) to send the "STOP" command, these sessions are flagged in our system as Smart Managed.

Because they are managed by ev.energy, they will not count against your monthly incentive eligibility.
You do not need to worry about being penalized for the app's internal processing time.

Technical Note: If you notice your car charging for more than 15 minutes during peak hours while Smart Mode is active, please contact us at eversource-ma@ev.energy.

We will have our engineering team investigate. Please ensure no other apps (like your car’s manufacturer app) have active schedules that might be "fighting" our Smart Mode commands.