What utility make-ready actually covers
Make-ready is everything that has to exist before a charger can be energised, and it splits at the meter. Utility-side make-ready is the distribution line, the transformer and the service up to the meter, and the utility builds and owns it. Customer-side make-ready is everything past the meter: switchgear, panel, conduit, trench, pedestal foundations. You own that. Utility make-ready programs variously fund the utility side, a capped share of the customer side, both, or neither — there is no national answer, and any page that gives you one is averaging programs that are not alike. The procedural fact that costs owners the most money is not the amount. Most programs require approval before construction starts.
Updated 2026-08-20
The demarcation, precisely
The meter is where responsibility changes hands. Everything upstream of it belongs to the utility, is built to the utility's standards and is maintained by the utility. Everything downstream is yours from the day it is energised.
Who owns what, item by item
Take this to the kickoff meeting and mark up the last column with your own program's terms.
The demarcation is set by a tariff, not by common sense
Where the utility's responsibility ends is written down, in the utility's service rules or tariff, and it is not identical between utilities.
Sequence beats amount
Nearly every make-ready and rebate program requires approval before construction begins, and work started early is frequently ineligible permanently. That single rule costs owners more money than any cap does.
What we will not tell you, and why
We do not publish a national make-ready dollar figure. Not because we could not find one, but because the widely circulated ones lump commercial programs together with residential rebates, mix funded programs with expired ones, and go stale within a season.
The federal layer is not part of this
There is no federal tax credit for charging property today. Section 30C terminated for property placed in service after June 30, 2026, and there is no federal replacement.
What does utility make-ready cover?
In the utility's own usage, the infrastructure up to the meter: distribution line work, the transformer, and the service conductors. Programs vary in whether they extend past the meter to fund customer-side items like panel work, trenching and conduit, and where they do, those items are usually capped. Get the answer against your own itemised scope rather than against a brochure, because the phrase means different things to a utility and to a contractor.
Is utility make-ready free?
Sometimes the utility-side portion is, under a funded program. The customer-side portion rarely is, and on a lot installation the customer side — trenching, conduit, panel and foundations — is usually the larger number. Budget the customer side in full and treat any program contribution as a reduction rather than as the plan.
Who owns the transformer?
The utility owns and maintains it in the great majority of arrangements. Several utilities nonetheless require the customer to provide the pad, the vault, the access route or the protective bollards, built to the utility's specification. Which items those are is written in the utility's service rules, and it is worth having your contractor name the section rather than assume.
Can we start construction and apply for make-ready funding afterwards?
Almost never successfully. Most programs require approval before construction begins and treat early work as ineligible, permanently. This is the single most expensive procedural error in commercial charging, because it is not recoverable — you cannot retroactively apply for something already built.
How much do make-ready programs pay per port?
We do not publish a national figure, and we would be sceptical of anyone who does. The circulating numbers mix commercial programs with residential rebates and go stale quickly. The figure that matters is your utility's current cap and funding status, read from the sponsor's own page with a date attached. That is what our incentives section tracks, utility by utility.
Is there federal money for EV charging make-ready?
There is no federal tax credit for charging property today: Section 30C terminated for property placed in service after June 30, 2026, and nothing federal replaced it. Any proposal that nets a federal credit against your make-ready cost is arithmetically wrong. The money that still exists is the utility layer and, in some states, a state layer.
Know the whole number before you chase the rebate
Make-ready contributions are a reduction on a project cost, not a substitute for knowing it. The estimate returns a modelled range with the customer-side civil work separated out, which is the part programs cap.