Utility programs, delivered at checkout.
Build the virtual power plant at checkout. That's where the yes is.
A customer choosing a smart thermostat joins your demand response program in the same flow — eligibility checked against your records as they go, caps enforced, nothing extra to look up. One opt-in, and the device is pre-enrolled.
Documented by the U.S. Department of Energy as a high-impact action for VPP enrollment. Read the report (PDF, pp. 22 and 63)
Smart thermostat
Wi-Fi connected · DR eligible
Pre-enroll in demand response
Eligibility confirmed automatically
Two offers stacked automatically
Utility and DR incentive amounts as documented by DOE.
97%
Pre-enrolled at purchase on one utility's thermostat program, against a published benchmark of 60%+ for the same mechanism.
One opt-in
No eligibility fields added to the checkout, and no account number to look up in many configurations.
Recovered
If a device never comes online, we charge the incentive back to the customer and return it to your rebate fund. Enervee runs the recovery, not your team.
The problem
The rules have to run without the customer feeling them.
Enrollment at purchase is easy to offer. What decides whether it works is what your eligibility checks do to a customer mid-checkout.
It usually goes wrong in one of two directions. Skip the verification and the program inherits enrollments it cannot honor — rejected claims, reconciliations, and a customer who was told yes and later told no. Bolt it on and you get an account-number prompt, a lookup that spins, a step that reads like an interrogation — and the drop-off lands precisely where you needed the conversion.
The work is making the checks disappear. Validation runs against your dataset in real time while the customer moves through the flow, not in front of it. Per-order and per-account caps apply without being announced. An ineligibility surfaces only when it actually applies, with the reason, in place — so the customer who qualifies is never asked to prove it.
Where you cannot support a real-time interface, validation runs against a periodic eligibility file matched on the fields you can supply. An account number is not required in every configuration, so the customer is not sent off to find one.
Business rules are configured per Incentive Request Form and enforced by rebate type, so demand response and efficiency rules apply independently on the same order.
Reaching the same household months later, by campaign, avoids none of this — and converts the way a second ask converts.
- Account matched to your records automatically. Nothing for the customer to look up or type.
- Heating type eligible — checked silently, because this program requires it.
- Second of two devices permitted this program year. A third is declined here, with the reason — the only point at which the customer sees a rule at all.
Three rules enforced. One opt-in for the customer, and no fields added to the checkout. Illustrative — rules, caps and required fields are configured per program.
Evidence
The benchmark is 60%. We pre-enroll 95%, and 78% of those reach a connected device.
DOE's Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Virtual Power Plants (2025 Update) identifies point-of-purchase enrollment as a high-impact lever and cites 60% or more as the demonstrated benchmark for it. The same report names Enervee as the marketplace provider behind one of its case studies.
95%
Checkout Pre-enrolled
of smart thermostat buyers pre-enroll in the demand response program during checkout
The tick is the 60% published benchmark — another marketplace provider's result, cited by DOE in VPP Liftoff 2025.
Up from 65% after the pre-enrollment incentive rose from $25 to $125 on 1 July 2026. A large Northwest utility, measured 1 July – 1 September 2026.
78%
Checkout Installed & connected
of those who pre-enrolled at checkout go on to complete enrollment — the device installed and connected to the utility's demand response platform
Same program, across every order since it launched in March 2025.
The two rates cover different windows, so they describe two stages rather than one cohort — no combined figure is implied. The documented case sits alongside them: an earlier thermostat program, named in DOE's VPP Liftoff report (pp. 22 and 63) and in Public Utilities Fortnightly, January 2022, pre-enrolled at 97% across roughly 40,000 thermostats on a marketplace Enervee built and operated.
How it works
One checkout, two program measures.
A customer choosing a compatible thermostat opts into your program in the same flow, and the DR incentive applies immediately as an instant rebate — stacked on any efficiency rebate on the same product. Two budgets, claimed separately. One net price on screen.
The efficiency incentive is earned on the purchase. The DR incentive is earned on pre-enrollment — which is what creates the activation obligation, and the recovery behind it.
Opt in at checkout
A dedicated DR step carries your program terms, with explicit opt-in. Only opt-ins receive the rebate.
CustomerSerial captured at fulfillment
Reported on the shipment update. The customer is never asked to find it or type it.
FulfillmentValidated and deduplicated
Checked against a per-model format rule and against existing enrollments, so no malformed serial reaches your provider.
EnerveeSubmitted to your provider
The enrollment policy routes it to the right provider, program and device platform.
EnerveeStatus polled back
Stored with its full change history and the provider's raw response.
EnerveeThe result is an enrollment tied to a specific, verified device — which is what makes the claim defensible in an evaluation, and what makes any later charge to the customer fair.
Beyond thermostats
Thermostats alone will not reach your peak target.
The thermostat opportunity has a long tail — households will keep buying them, and keep enrolling, for years. That is not the constraint. The constraint is how much load a thermostat fleet can shift, against peak targets that keep moving.
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Pre-enrollment live
Instant rebate
Smart thermostat
Wi-Fi connected
Four manufacturers in production, configured per SKU.
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Transacting today
Instant rebate
EV charger
Level 2, Wi-Fi connected
Instant rebates at checkout. Pre-enrollment when your provider supports the device.
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Transacting today
Instant rebate
Heat pump water heater
Electric, tank
Instant rebates at checkout. Pre-enrollment when your provider supports the device.
Activation & recovery
What happens when the device never comes online.
The incentive is paid at purchase, before the device is connected. Closing that gap is the mechanism — and it is built so that nobody is charged without repeated warning.
At checkout
Incentive applied. The activation requirement is stated in the terms the customer opts into.
Reminder one
Prompts installation and connection.
Reminder two
Carries the time remaining and the amount at risk.
Reminder three
Counts down to the charge date.
Recovery, or not
If the device came online, nothing happens. If it did not, the card is charged and a final message explains why.
The sequence reads the device's actual status from your DERMS provider rather than running off a calendar. A customer who activates stops hearing from us, and a device that is online but not yet enrolled is messaged differently from one with a failed enrollment.
Before any charge, four checks.
- A valid DR benefit on the order
- A serial matching the shipment record
- An original payment that succeeded
- No existing recovery for that order and device
Recovered funds are credited back to your DR rebate fund, with chargeback fees netted against it. Recovery is governed, not unilateral — your program approves any suspension, and we have executed utility-directed pauses for specific device cohorts. Customers who return the product, or who charge back, become eligible again.
You do not pay incentive dollars for a device that never comes online — and Enervee runs the recovery, not your team.
Scope & integration
What is live today.
Smart thermostats, in productionPre-enrollment is live for smart thermostats from four manufacturers. Beyond thermostats, the constraint is your DERMS provider's device coverage.