EV Retrofit's in Existing Condominiums

Solar and Electric Vehicle (EV) demand is on the rise as the public continues to lean into a emission reduced living. We see more and more condominiums, new and old, looking into adding Solar or EV into their communities. For many of those, we are seeing a trend of unfeasibility with pre-existing buildings. But even with government grants, why is this?

When we design a condo building (or any buildings for that matter), there are Architects, (who design the look, and layout) and then Mechanical, Structural, and Electrical Engineers designing the operating systems for that building based on the requirements dictated by the size, design and occupancy. When an electrical Engineer designs the electrical system, they are considering:

• Available power from the municipality

• Minimum power requirements of the building

• Cost implications of additional power

Lets remember who designs and approves these designs, being multi residential developers. The #1 interest for them is net profit. If additional electrical needs does not provide additional profits, it will not be added. Unless EV chargers are apart of the original design, that are advertised and therefor, can generate more revenue and increase prices, 99% of developers are not going to include the additional power requirements that these EV chargers need. This is because after all the units are sold, the developer has no interest in the building (financially speaking). If a developer was to pay the additional costs to allow for EV charging AFTER all the units are sold, they don't get to see any of the gains realized after their installation. So there is no interest to increase panel capacities to allow for these future installations at the get go, it'd simply be spending money with no return on investment from the developers point of view. The capacities are designed to be as little as possible to save costs. We even see in some cases that the installation of ductless or portable AC units is not permitted in some condos.

I see this on a monthly basis, were a condo corporation wants to investigate installing an EV charger, or multiple, and the capacity for the charger(s) is simply not there, and the municipality may not even have the power available to increase the panels. We aren't exactly talking about going from a 60 AMP panel to 100 AMP here, we are talking about potentially doubling consumption capacity at a commercial level after the fact. Its simply not feasible in the majority of retrofit scenarios. The City of Calgary can offer all the grants in the world to allow for EV Charger design investigations at multi res buildings, but it doesn't change the fact that developers inherently don't have an interest in spending more money than they have to allow for those capacities.

Any of those who DO have the capacity to allow for chargers, who pays for it? How's it tie into the Corporations grid? Its usually a single home owner (or a few) that wants it, so it has to be an investment made by the corporation and charged out per use. At which point the rest of ownership (75%) needs to allow for the Corporation to spend the money and prove that its a profitable investment, since its a capital upgrade. This is the point where most retrofits get caught up, because its nearly impossible to tie that owners new retrofit EV into their individual units power grid, also of which will almost never allow for the capacity needed for an EV Charger.

So, what's an EV owner to do in the condo world? Gotta look into newer builds that are designing the power supply for chargers into the grid. Case and point, London at Heritage Station. There should be nearly 40 chargers available after completion of the other two towers, and 10 are currently in the works, on a pay as you go system built into the design of the complex. This is because they are 50% (I'm approximating) done the development and the developer still has some skin in the game and is adjusting to market demands. These newer builds will continue to adjust as demands grow, but don't count on an older complex to be able to support retrofit EV Charger's.