Thank you to everyone for the replies; most helpful indeed, and some terrific points made.
I did pull the power distribution panel out and found that the shore power cord come up thru the floor directly under the cabinet; it does not take a trip thru the basement.
However, that cabinet does abut the basement wall, and there does appear to be enough of a loop that after disconnecting the shore power cord from rear of the panel, I should be able to reroute the cord to the basement area.
There should be enough slack in the wire to reach far enough. I plan to reroute the cord and mount the EMS in as best a position as I can based on how far the cord actually reaches once I get started. From there, I just need to buy a 3 or 4 foot long piece to go from the EMS back to the power panel and we're golden.
Sunday night we ordered the hardwired version (EMS-HW50C) from Tweeys.com for $303 with free shipping.
Thanks again to all; and I will post pictures, post-install.