Rebates & Incentives · August 30, 2026
Short answer: both federal credits are gone. The 30% credit for a home EV charger, worth up to $1,000, expired for anything placed in service after June 30, 2026. The 25C credit that covered up to $600 of an electrical panel upgrade expired six months before that, at the end of 2025. Neither is coming back on its own.
What replaced them is a patchwork of utility programs, and the amounts differ enormously depending on who sends you your power bill. A Vancouver homeowner gets a flat $500 from Clark Public Utilities with no income test. A Beaverton homeowner on Pacific Power can get up to $1,500 — but only if the household is income-qualified. A homeowner in inner Portland on PGE currently gets nothing toward the charger itself.
Below is every program we could verify as of August 30, 2026, what each one actually pays, who qualifies, and where the paperwork trips people up. We install to these programs' requirements as a matter of course, so the section at the end covers the two things that most often cost people the rebate after the work is already done.
Before you buy a charger, have the panel looked at: a Level 2 charger needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit sized to the unit, and if the panel is already full that is a subpanel or service conversation first, not a reason to skip the charger. That one visit is what saves surprises later.
This is the part most contractor websites in the metro still have wrong, so it is worth being exact. Both credits were shortened by federal legislation in 2025, and both expiry dates have now passed.
If your charger or panel was placed in service before the relevant date, you may still be able to claim the credit on the return for that tax year. Placed in service means finished and usable, not ordered or paid for. That is a question for your tax preparer, not for an electrician — we are naming the dates, not giving tax advice.
| Credit | What it covered | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit | 30% of an electrical panelboard, sub-panel, branch circuit or feeder, up to $600. Required 200 amp capacity or greater and had to serve qualifying energy property. Labor counted. | Expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 |
| 30C Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit | 30% of a home EV charger and its installation, up to $1,000. Also carried a census-tract restriction that excluded much of urban Portland even while it was alive. | Expired for property placed in service after June 30, 2026 |
Everything still paying out is either a utility program or a state program. Here is the whole picture in one place, with the detail on each below.
| Program | Pays | Who qualifies |
|---|---|---|
| Clark Public Utilities EV charger rebate | $500 connected Level 2 charger; $100 non-connected or mobile connector | Clark PUD residential customers. No income test. Max two per household |
| Pacific Power home charger rebate (Oregon) | Up to $1,500 hardwired Level 2; up to $500 for a 240V outlet | Pacific Power customers at or below 150% of Oregon median income |
| PGE Smart Charging | $50 to enroll, then $25 twice a year | PGE customers with an eligible connected charger or EV |
| Washington state HEAR | 50% of equipment and installation under 150% AMI; 100% under 80% AMI | Covers panel and wiring upgrades needed for new electric equipment; Clark County via United Hub |
| Energy Trust of Oregon | Heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, insulation | Nothing for panels, service upgrades, wiring or EV circuits |
| Oregon HEAR | Not open to homeowners yet | Contractor enrollment opens October 12, 2026; homeowner rebates await federal approval |
| Portland Energy Friendly Homes (PCEF) | Heat pumps and related work, including a panel or service upgrade needed for a fuel-switching heat pump | Portland homeowners at or below 150% AMI |
This is the simplest and most generous no-strings program in the metro. Clark Public Utilities pays $500 toward a qualified connected Level 2 charger, or $100 for a non-connected Level 2 or a mobile connector. There is no income requirement.
The word doing the work is connected. To get the $500 the charger has to be ENERGY STAR rated and Wi-Fi connected, and it has to be new. A perfectly good unconnected charger drops you to the $100 tier, so this is worth settling before anyone buys hardware.
You can claim up to two rebates per household, and the paperwork has to be in within two years of the purchase. Clark PUD also states that an electrical permit is required for most Level 2 installations — which is not optional and is included in what we quote.
Separately, Clark PUD runs a used-EV rebate worth up to $2,000 for income-qualified customers. That one is about the car, not the wiring, but it is on the same program page.
Pacific Power's home charger rebate is the largest single amount available in the metro: up to $1,500 for a hardwired Level 2 charger, or up to $500 for a 240V outlet. It is income-qualified — the household has to be at or below 150% of Oregon median income, which starts around $123,500 for a single-person household and rises with household size.
What makes this one genuinely useful is what counts as a qualified expense. Unlike most charger rebates, Pacific Power's covers licensed electrician labor, the charger or 240V plug, materials and permits — not just the hardware. On a straightforward install that can mean the rebate covers most of the job.
The conditions worth knowing before you start: the equipment has to be purchased after January 1, 2026, the work has to be done by a licensed electrician, you have one year to apply, and customers who took a previous Pacific Power EV incentive are not eligible again.
The catch is territory. Pacific Power serves parts of the west side of the metro and the Oregon coast; most of inner Portland is PGE. Your bill tells you which — see below.
This is the awkward one. Portland General Electric serves most of the Portland metro, and as of August 2026 the federal Alternative Fuels Data Center lists PGE's residential charging infrastructure incentives as none currently offered. PGE's own pages mention that customers may be eligible for rebates on a qualifying Level 2 charger but do not publish an amount, and we could not verify one.
What PGE does pay is the Smart Charging enrollment reward: $50 to sign up, then $25 twice a year for taking part in Smart Charging seasons. That is real money, but it is a behaviour programme rather than an installation rebate, and it does not offset the cost of the wiring.
If you have seen a specific PGE charger rebate figure advertised locally, treat it with suspicion. One Beaverton contractor's site was advertising a "$300 PGE rebate" in August 2026 that we could not find any support for on PGE's or the program administrator's pages.
One update since we first published: PGE's own special offers page now mentions rebates on electrical panel upgrades through the Smart Charging program, but it does not publish an amount or the conditions, and we could not confirm them on a PGE page. Figures quoted elsewhere online come from older third-party pages. If you are on PGE and planning a panel upgrade for an EV charger, call PGE before the work starts and ask what applies to your address.
The charger rebates above are for the charger and its circuit. If your panel has to be upgraded first, that is a separate question, and the answer depends on the state.
Washington. The state's Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program is funded and active, and it explicitly covers electric panel and wiring upgrades required to install new electric equipment. Households under 150% of area median income get 50% of equipment and installation costs; under 80% AMI it is 100%. In Clark County the administrator is United Hub. Intake opens and closes by administrator rather than statewide, so check before you count on it.
Oregon. The equivalent federal program is not open to homeowners yet. The Oregon Department of Energy still says no rebates are available, but in September 2026 it announced that contractor enrollment opens on October 12, 2026, with single-family rebates to follow once the US Department of Energy approves the launch. The published plan is up to $4,000 toward an electrical panel and $2,500 toward wiring. Worth watching; not worth waiting on for a job you need done now. In the City of Portland, income-qualified homeowners can already get a panel covered when it is needed for a heat pump that replaces gas or oil heat, or for a heat pump water heater, through the program below.
Energy Trust of Oregon comes up constantly in this conversation and it is worth being blunt: reading their January 2026 residential incentive sheet end to end, there is no incentive for a panel upgrade, a service upgrade, wiring or a 240V circuit. Energy Trust pays for heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, insulation and a handful of other measures. If a panel upgrade is what enables a heat pump you are having installed, the heat pump incentive may still apply — the panel itself does not.
For most households, no. There is no federal tax credit for a panel installed in 2026, no utility in the metro publishes a panel rebate you can count on (PGE mentions one through Smart Charging but lists no amount), and Energy Trust of Oregon has no panel incentive. Offers of a "free panel upgrade" in online ads are almost always lead-generation for solar or battery sales, where the panel is folded into a much larger contract.
For income-qualified homeowners it can be genuinely free, or close to it, when the panel is needed to install new electric equipment such as a heat pump, heat pump water heater, induction range or EV charger. These are the programs that actually do it as of late September 2026.
| Program | Where | What it pays for a panel | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington state HEAR (via United Hub) | Clark County and four other counties | 100% of qualified cost under 80% AMI, 50% under 150% AMI, when the panel is needed for new electric equipment | Open; funding is limited |
| City of Vancouver HEAR partners | Vancouver city limits | Panel and wiring upgrades, households under 80% AMI; a handful of panels planned | Funded August 2026; intake dates not yet published |
| Energy Friendly Homes (Portland Clean Energy Fund) | City of Portland | Panel or service replacement when required for a heat pump that replaces the home's primary heating fuel, or for a heat pump water heater; electrical repair as a critical repair | Open to homeowners at or below 150% AMI |
| Oregon HEAR (federal) | Statewide | Up to $4,000 for a panel and $2,500 for wiring; up to 100% under 80% AMI | Not open to homeowners; contractor enrollment starts October 12, 2026 |
| Washington federal HEAR | Statewide | Expected to follow the same federal caps | Not launched; awaiting federal authorization |
A few local repair programs can also fix unsafe electrical work for low-income, older or disabled homeowners, usually with long waiting lists: Portland Housing Bureau's home repair loan inside the Interstate Corridor, the City of Vancouver Housing Rehabilitation Program (a deferred loan with a backlog of a year or more), and Clark County's Housing Preservation grants (non-emergency waitlist currently closed). They treat electrical work as a hazard repair, not an upgrade.
If you think you qualify, apply to the program before hiring anyone. These programs pay through their own enrolled contractors and will not reimburse work that was done first. If you do not qualify, the honest answer is that a panel upgrade is paid for out of pocket; our own 100 to 200 amp upgrades typically cost $2,500 to $3,500. The panel cost guide has a calculator.
Because the amounts range from nothing to $1,500 depending purely on the utility, this is the first thing to check — before you shop for a charger, not after.
Look at the top of your electricity bill, not your gas bill. In this metro it will say Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, or Clark Public Utilities. City boundaries are no guide at all: neighbouring streets in Beaverton and Hillsboro can be on different utilities, and everything on the Washington side of the river is Clark PUD.
If you tell us which one when you call, we will tell you which programme applies and what it is likely to be worth on your particular job before we quote.
Almost every rejected claim we hear about comes down to one of two things, and both are avoidable.
No permit. Clark PUD says outright that an electrical permit is required for most Level 2 installations, and every one of these programmes assumes code-compliant, inspected work. An uninspected install by an unlicensed installer is cheaper on the day and worthless when you file. We pull the permit and meet the inspector as part of the job, and the permit cost is inside our quote rather than added afterwards.
Buying the wrong hardware first. The single most common version is buying an unconnected charger in Clark County and losing $400, or buying equipment before January 1, 2026 and falling outside Pacific Power's window. Ask before you buy.
We are not tax advisers and we do not file your claim for you. What we do is install to the standard the programme requires and hand you the paperwork — model and serial number, permit number, itemised invoice separating labour, materials and permit — in the form the programme asks for.
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