Maryland Opens Up to $16.5M in EV-Charging Grants — Some Fast-Charger Incentives Are Smaller

Maryland has opened its fiscal 2027 Community EVSE grant round with an anticipated budget of up to $16.5 million for Level 2 and Level 3 charging projects. The Maryland Energy Administration says applications are due at 3 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 9, with award or non-award notifications anticipated in spring 2027.¹²

That top-line number is substantially larger than the $9 million the agency anticipated for the installation portion of its FY26 Community EVSE program. But the new program is not simply last year's formula with more money added: Maryland reorganized the eligible project categories, raised applicant-wide caps, and set several high-power per-port incentives below the prior formula.²³

The distinction matters because a bigger statewide funding envelope does not mean every charger can receive a bigger grant.

The pool is larger, but some fast-charging formulas are smaller

The FY27 funding opportunity covers five project types: multifamily housing, curbside charging, parking hubs, workplaces, and fleets. Grant amounts depend on the project type, whether the equipment is owner-operated or operated by a third party, the power delivered per port, and the number of ports.¹²

Across the FY27 formula, per-port incentives range from $5,500 to $125,000 depending on those factors.²

At the high-power end, the change from FY26 is especially visible. The FY26 installation formula listed $150,000 per port for owner-operated chargers above 150 kW. Under FY27, owner-operated chargers at 150 kW and above are eligible for $125,000 per port at multifamily-housing or curbside projects and $100,000 per port at parking-hub, workplace, or fleet projects.²³

That is not a universal cut. The FY27 program uses category-specific amounts, and some lower-power figures are higher or unchanged compared with the previous structure. The FY26 and FY27 programs also are not perfectly identical, so the move from an anticipated $9 million installation pool to an anticipated up-to-$16.5 million FY27 pool is best understood as a comparison of announced funding envelopes rather than actual awards or completed charging infrastructure.²³

Bigger applicant caps could support larger projects

Maryland also raised the maximum grant amounts available to an applicant across all sites and applications.

The FY27 maximum is $900,000 for businesses and LLCs, incorporated nonprofits, eligible higher-education institutions, municipal governments, and Maryland-recognized Tribal governments, up from $750,000 in the FY26 installation round. For counties and local education agencies, the maximum is $1.5 million, compared with $1 million previously.²³

The program requires at least four charging ports for multifamily-housing applications and at least two ports for curbside, parking-hub, workplace, and fleet projects.²

Maryland's separate FY27 residential EVSE rebate is now limited to residential charging. The state directs non-residential charging infrastructure toward the competitive Community EVSE program instead.⁴

The grants come with operating requirements

The FY27 terms attach performance and customer-access requirements to the public funding. Covered chargers must meet a 97% uptime requirement; networked chargers must use OCPP 1.6 or newer; equipment must carry at least a five-year warranty; and payment cannot be limited to a proprietary app alone.²

For third-party owner-operators, the agency can hold back 10% of the grant as a performance payment until the uptime requirement has been demonstrated over two years.²

MEA says the $16.5 million budget is an anticipated maximum from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund, not a guaranteed final award total. The agency's funding notice says the amount ultimately awarded may be higher or lower depending on available funding, restrictions on funding sources, and the number and quality of applications received.¹²

That means the next concrete milestone is the application deadline, not a buildout total. Awards are expected to be announced in spring 2027; those awards would still precede construction, commissioning, and actual operation of the resulting chargers.¹²

Sources

Footnotes

1. Community Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Grant Program — Fiscal Year 2027 — Maryland Energy Administration, observed Sept. 9, 2026. https://energy.maryland.gov/Pages/CommunityEVSE.aspx Primary program page establishing the FY27 issue date, project categories, application deadline, anticipated award timing and MEA's anticipated up-to-$16.5 million budget; the budget is conditional and does not establish future awards or completed chargers. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. FY27 Community EVSE Grant Program Funding Opportunity Announcement — Maryland Energy Administration, issued Sept. 9, 2026. https://energy.maryland.gov/SiteAssets/Pages/CommunityEVSE/FY27%20Community%20EVSE%20Grant%20Program%20FOA%20-%20Issued%209.9.26.pdf Primary funding document establishing the FY27 grant formulas, applicant caps, minimum-port rules, eligible project structure, reliability/software/warranty/payment requirements, deadline, conditional budget and anticipated award timing. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. FY 2026 Community EVSE Grant Program — AOI 2 EVSE Installations FOA — Maryland Energy Administration, issued Nov. 25, 2025 with later clarifications. https://energy.maryland.gov/SiteAssets/Pages/CommunityEVSE/FY%202026%20Community%20EVSE%20Grant%20Program%20-%20AOI%202%20FOA_V3.pdf Primary prior-year document establishing the FY26 installation AOI's anticipated $9 million pool, prior per-port formula and applicant-wide caps; FY26 and FY27 structures are not identical. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Residential Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Rebate Program — Fiscal Year 2027 — Maryland Energy Administration, FY27 terms issued July 8, 2026. https://energy.maryland.gov/transportation/Pages/incentives_evserebate.aspx Primary program page establishing that the FY27 residential rebate is residential-only and directs non-residential charging infrastructure toward the Community EVSE program. ↩