Is Your Condo Ready for EV Charging Stations?

and challenging conventional thinking, many more options come to light.

Smart chargers combine with any conventional approach, simply extending the service to a greater number of units. The possible confgurations are virtually endless, and customizable to the needs of any community. This smart approach would also be suited to townhomes, should there not exist suffcient electrical panel capacity in a conventional approach.

The Even “Smarter” Approach Taking the “smart” approach a step further – by using smart chargers that communicate with individual suite electrical panels, available charging capacity at a given time is limited to the remaining capacity of the in-suite panels regardless of total system availability. In this way, unit owners are in full control of their EVC capacity without exceeding their equitable share of electricity, while the building overall remains within the existing electrical system capacity.

This methodology does not mean making direct connections between parking stalls and individual unit electrical panels. Rather, connections would be made to nearby garage common electrical rooms, with communication devices installed at individual EVCs and the unit electrical panels receiving the service to determine available electrical capacity at a given time. Individual owners are still using “their” electricity, just making use of the “common areas” infrastructure to deliver it to their charging station.

Technologies are emerging to take this kind of approach, and in doing so, almost every building is already “future proofed” in this way and available to everyone. would of course still be some leadership required from BODs, as well as related logistics, including potentially some nominal, new infrastructure installations. Overall cost, and philosophical considerations not discussed here also need to be taken into account.

In addition to obvious expert technical guidance that should be sought, some sort of EV policy should certainly be developed for every community, with corresponding legal advice, and by-laws passed as needed. In some older, bulk metered communities, there are additional administrative and equity challenges to be resolved (requiring further legal guidance, as it can easily be seen as unfair when an individual is able to use common element electricity to charge their private EV). Overall community desires should be considered, along with a long-term vision. There may be marketing considerations in relation to salability and/or rental of individual units, as well as any number of other community specifc factors.

Other Considerations Regardless of the approach taken, there

Whatever the current course of any community, the EV revolution is closer than you think.

Collectively, our team has over 10 years of experience in condominium common element refurbishments and more than 40 years in high end residential and commercial/retail interior construction. Our goal is to provide our clients with timeless, fresh designs and quality workmanship, all within your budget.

CONDOMINIUM REFURBISHMENT GENERAL CONTRACTORS

Joel Berkovitz Partner Shibley Righton LLP Evan Holt Associate Shibley Righton LLP

The growth in the electric vehicle market is happening as we speak. If your condominium has not already received a request from an owner to install an electric vehicle charging station (EVCS), it likely will soon.

There are a number of simple steps your condominium should be taking to ensure it is ready when EVCS requests begin to arrive:

1. Understand that your condominium cannot refuse an EVCS installation request except in very narrow circumstances – If an owner approaches the Board with a reasonable installation request, the Board will likely have to grant it. The only option that a Board has, in most cases, is to ask that the installation meet certain requirements.

2. Be prepared to act quickly when an EVCS installation request is submitted - The Condominium Act gives condominiums 60 days to respond to the request – if the condominium fails to respond, (either accepting the owner’s installation plan, proposing an alternative installation plan, or rejecting the installation plan) the request is deemed to be accepted. Once the request is accepted there are further time limits for entering into an agreement with the owner, which must be registered on title to the owner’s unit. It is not unusual for an owner’s installation plan to lack suffcient detail to be properly considered by the Board. In these cases, the Board’s response can require the unit owner to provide additional detail so that the Board can fully consider the implications of the owner’s installation plan, and the 60day period for the Board to respond will begin to run only once that information has been received.

3. Have a load study commissioned by an electrical consultant and determine how the electrical infrastructure of the Corporation can be most effciently managed – Upon learning of a condominium’s load capacity, many

Boards have elected to install a dedicated electricity panel for EVCSs to connect to, and require that any EVCS to be installed be networked and capable of power management. This type of EVCS electrical infrastructure can limit the available electrical load and distribute it amongst all connected

EVCSs. In many cases this can double the number of EVCSs which can be accommodated and helps to ensure that the condominium’s load capacity is not exceeded. Many Boards are now completing load studies and taking steps to install EVCS electrical infrastructure in advance of receiving an owner’s request for installation of an EVCS.

4. Build in time for owner consultation and notice – While section 97 of the Condominium Act (which governs additions, alterations or improvements to the common elements) does not apply to EVCS electrical infrastructure installations by a condominium, there are still notice requirements which, in most cases, require a Board to give owners 60 days’ notice before the EVCS electrical infrastructure can be installed. And of course, as a matter of good governance, Boards should be consulting and informing owners before undertaking major expenditures.

5. Pass an EVCS policy – While this is not a requirement, having a policy that provides owners with a plain language explanation of the process for applying to install an EVCS and, perhaps more importantly, any special requirements that apply to your specifc condominium will help to streamline the installation process.. Boards should consider, for example:

a. Whether it will mandate specifc technical requirements for EVC-

Ss (e.g. maximum 32 amps, networked level 2 chargers); b. Whether it will require owners to use a contractor approved by the

Board; c. How the power consumption of

EVCSs will be measured – usually this is either by a check-meter, or a software-based billing system; and d. Whether owners installing an

EVCS will be asked to pay their proportionate share of any necessary common infrastructure.

6. Draft a template installation agreement – As noted above, the condominium and owner are required to come to an agreement with respect to the installation of an EVCS within a specifc time period. If the condominium has a policy that sets out specifc requirements as to how an installation is to proceed, it may be possible, with the help of legal counsel, to create a template agreement that can be easily updated to refect an owner’s specifc installation plans.

This can assist the Board in coming to an agreement with the owner in the prescribed period.

By taking these steps, Boards can be assured that they will be prepared to properly respond when EVCS installation requests start to come in.