Who we install commercial charging for
Commercial EV charging covers a wide range of sites, and each one has different priorities:
- Workplaces wanting charging for staff, visitors or pool cars
- Fleet operators with vans, utes or cars that return to a depot overnight
- Strata buildings where owners want chargers in their own car spaces or a shared bay
- Retail, hospitality and accommodation offering charging to customers and guests
- Builders and developers planning new buildings that need to be EV ready
Our workplace EV charging guide covers the main decisions in more detail.
Start with the supply, not the charger
The most important part of a commercial EV charging job is understanding the building’s electrical capacity. A single 7 kW charger adds a load similar to a large air conditioner. Ten of them running at once can be more than a small building’s supply can carry, especially on a hot afternoon when the air conditioning is also flat out.
Before we recommend any hardware, we look at the main switchboard, the size of the supply, existing maximum demand and, where available, interval data from the electricity retailer. On larger sites we may log the load for a period to see real usage patterns. That tells us how many chargers can be supported as is, whether load management is needed, and whether a switchboard upgrade or supply upgrade should be part of the plan.
Load management
Load management lets a site install more chargers than the supply could run flat out at the same time. The chargers share the available capacity, slowing down when the building is busy and speeding up when there is spare capacity. For most workplaces and apartment buildings this is the practical way to offer charging to many users without an expensive supply upgrade.
Dynamic load management uses a meter on the main supply to adjust charging in real time based on what the rest of the building is drawing. Static load management simply caps the total charging load. We recommend the approach that suits the site and explain the trade-offs clearly, because it affects how fast each vehicle will charge.
Choosing chargers for a commercial site
Most workplace, strata and fleet charging uses AC chargers, typically single phase or three phase units, because cars are parked for hours. DC fast chargers suit sites where vehicles need a quick top-up, such as retail, service stations and some fleets, but they need a large supply and significantly more infrastructure.
Other things to decide:
- Whether users need to pay for charging, and how that will be billed
- Whether chargers need network connectivity for access control, reporting or load management
- Tethered cables or universal sockets
- Pedestal or wall mounting, and bollard protection in car parks
- How many bays should be installed now and how many prepared for later
We can supply chargers from reputable brands or install client-supplied units, provided they are suitable for the site and approved for use in Australia.
Strata and apartment buildings
EV charging in strata buildings raises questions about common property, metering and who pays for electricity. Common approaches include a shared charging bay on common property with user billing, or a backbone of cabling and load management that individual owners connect to with their own charger. Either way, the body corporate usually needs to approve the work, and the capacity of the building’s supply has to be managed across all users. We work with strata managers and committees to put a plan together that can grow as demand does. More on our strata electrical page.
Installation and compliance
Every charger gets a dedicated circuit with the correct protection, including RCD protection suitable for EV charging, and cable sized to AS/NZS 3008 for the load and run length. Car park installations often involve long cable runs, trenching or tray through basements, and fire separation penetrations that must be sealed properly. Work is carried out to AS/NZS 3000 and we issue compliance certificates on completion.
Where solar is on site, some chargers can prioritise solar generation for charging. We can advise on how that works with your existing inverter system. For more on reducing the running cost of the site overall, see our energy efficiency service.
Planning for growth and quoting
Demand for charging tends to grow once the first few units go in. It is usually far cheaper to install spare conduit, cable tray capacity and a sub-board sized for future chargers during the first stage than to come back and do it again later. For new buildings, we work with builders and designers to make car parks EV ready during construction.
Every project gets an upfront written quote after a site visit. Cost depends on the number and type of chargers, supply capacity, distance from the switchboard to the parking bays, trenching or basement cabling, load management and network requirements, and whether switchboard or supply upgrades are needed. Stefan runs the jobs himself and can stage larger projects to suit your budget and program.