With the word “potential” in its name, OmniPotential Energy Partners is working to address the challenge many potential owners of electric vehicles face —specifically the ability to conveniently “fuel” one.
Quick and easy public-access EV charging is still inconvenient, inaccessible and time-consuming.Home-based residential charging is not possible for those who have to park on the street or in a lot and cannot install private charging facilities. Of course, this disproportionately affects communities with lower home values.
To unlock these potential EV owners, Omni Potential developed an EV charging fee-for-use service platform, Curbstar, engineered to be installed curbside in virtually any residential community. Curbstar has its own electricity feed directly from the utility, so any EV owner can pull up, use the app to quickly identify their active account, and enjoy convenient on-your-street EV charging in communities with shared or private parking. Curbstar has two plugs and can service an entire block of EV owners. OmniPotential installs Curbstar at their expense, so consumers never pay hardware or installation fees.
“Our mission is, we are here to save the planet,” says Cora Castle, who invented the product and owns the company. “EVs are the lowest-hanging fruit in making an impact on climate change.”
She got the idea after buying herEV in 2019. “I live on a main thorough-fare in Wilmington, with no off-street parking. How can I charge my car? I found no solution beyond a really, really long extension cord,” she says. “I had to drive 12 miles to use the charger at a Wawa two hours a week.”
An electrical engineer by trade, she took a buyout while working in IT in 2020, and then spent the COVID pandemic shutdown designing the product. With the company covering all the installation and maintenance costs, “customers contribute only one square foot of their home [for the device], with the understanding that anyone can use it,” she says. The unit is connected by underground line to the nearest utility pole. Users pay OmniPotential for the electricity they use for their cars.
With EV charging held back by various laws and permitting red tape— “The EV market is bit Wild West,” Castle says — her company drafted legislation and worked with elected officials to introduce SB 187, requiring large municipalities in Delaware to design and make available a permit for curbside electric vehicle chargers. SB 187 took effect in June 2023. In February 2024, the company earned an Encouraging Growth, Development & Expansion (EDGE) Grant from the Delaware Division of Small Business to fund safety and certification testing, which is the final step before deployment.
“I don’t think our venture would even be considered by any state other than Delaware,” Castle says. “I often refer to the Delaware Effect; we had easy access to elected officials and willing legislative partners and had their support in SB 187. Everyone agrees that this is a reasonably clever way to relieve EV owners of the burden of cost in charging their cars.”
