CF Electrical

EV Infrastructure Upgrades

Are you considering installing one or more EV chargers in your multi-unit residential building (MURB)?

This can be a confusing process for strata owners, as there is a lot of information to take in. We have created this document to serve as a preliminary guide in your decision making process.

The general scope

BC Hydro is currently offering substantial rebates and incentives in an effort to electrify the province. 

You can find all detailed information on the BC Hydro rebates here.

Most buildings older than 5 years old do not have the infrastructure necessary to install level 2 EV chargers easily. It is often not feasible for owners to have an EV charger installed through their own BC Hydro meter. This leads to problems about how to effectively navigate billing problems, installation costs and future planning/installations for other owners.

BC Hydro has come up with some excellent solutions via a system of rebates as a way to incentivize MURBs to do a complete ‘EV infrastructure upgrade’. In plain english this means: upgrading the electrical system in your parking garage so that every stall is pre-wired for an EV charger in a way that will not overload the building’s electrical system. Your main ‘house panel’ is reconfigured and a load management system is installed as a way of future-proofing your building and making it easy for anyone to ‘have it installed’ when and if necessary.

This infrastructure upgrade is considerably more expensive than just installing one-off chargers, but the idea is to future-proof your building and be prepared for the coming wave of new electric vehicles. It also helps your strata corporation build a structured plan for how these installations will be managed moving forward. BC Hydro provides rebates to help offset the cost of doing this, in an effort to help MURBs make the jump now. 

This is from the BC Hydro website:

In order to implement your EV Ready plan, you’ll likely need electrical infrastructure installed in your complex. This is considered EV Ready infrastructure. 

Strata or complex owners installing EV Ready infrastructure can receive up to 50% of the cost for infrastructure and installation. This rebate is available to a maximum of $600 per parking stall, and a project maximum of $120,000, while funding lasts.

Now is the time to do these upgrades, as incentives will not last far into the future.

This sounds like a good idea! How do I get more information?

We know that it can often be a slow process to discuss all of these details with the members of your MURB. Each owner will have questions and different ideas about purchasing an electric vehicle. It is important for strata corporations to have information to make informed decisions.

If your MURB is interested in gathering details to make a decision the next step in the process is to get an EV Ready Plan. 

You may have heard of these already! Please note that these are different from an ‘Electrical Planning Report (EPR)’. An EPR is required by the province, an EV Ready Plan is not. Though they are similar, they are not the same and don’t give you the same information. Often an EPR must be completed by an electrical engineer.

You will find more information on EPR’s here.

If your building is considered a ‘Part 9’ type of building, we can complete these EPR for you as a qualified electrical contractor.

The EPR is a more comprehensive energy assessment of your building. For the purposes of planning for an EV installation, what you will need to focus on is an EV Ready Plan. CF Electrical can create this for you.

What is an EV Ready Plan and how do I get one?

An EV Ready Plan is a comprehensive assessment of your building’s electrical system with a goal of providing a solution for making it ‘EV Ready’. An electrician does a site visit, takes a series of notes, measurements and photos. We would then generate a report that explains the current electrical capacity of your building, what would be required to make it ‘EV Ready’ and the proposed solutions/costs of the project.

This report follows a strict layout required by BC Hydro.

The EV Ready Plan would outline:

  • Currently electrical system and existing capacity
  • Plan for installation of EV infrastructure
  • Plan for upgrading building’s electrical service (if needed)
  • Estimated cost of installation (and rebate amounts)
  • Options for level 2 EV chargers (hardware)
  • Options for billing systems/software (pay per use or flat rate)

There is a considerable amount of work needed to generate this report, so there is a cost associated with it. Fortunately BC Hydro covers most of this. 

CF Electrical’s EV Ready Plan:

Initial cost          $4000

Rebate               ($3000)

Your cost = $1000 + GST

You will be required to pay for this cost up-front and submit the invoice and required documentation afterward to receive your rebate.

This report will require a 1-2 hour site visit and approximately 1 week to produce. We will also ask you to provide a 12-month BC Hydro usage history and have all residents fill out a short questionnaire. In addition to the required Excel and PDF files required by BC Hydro, we will also generate a nice PowerPoint presentation if needed as a tool to present to your strata council.

Interested?

Please book a visit with CF Electrical so we can help you get your EV Ready Plan started!

Further questions:

  1. Only 1 or 2 people want an EV charger in our building, can we just install that and avoid the extra costs?

Yes, this is possible. However you will likely run into problems down the road. In most cases it is not electrically feasible for owners to install EV chargers directly through their own BC Hydro meter. This means that they need to be installed on the building’s ‘house panel’. Without proper systems in place it can be difficult to agree on how owners will get billed correctly. Furthermore, most house panels can only handle 1 or 2 chargers (without load management systems) before they are at capacity. This leads to problems when a 3rd or 4th owner wants to install a charger in a year or two.

  1. Does installing EV infrastructure increase the property value?

Yes, we believe it does! Moving forward, more people are going to be purchasing electric vehicles and having a solid system in place now helps make your building more attractive to new buyers. If the upgrade is already completed this should increase the value of your space in the long term. 

  1. How long does it take to do an infrastructure upgrade?

This will depend on the size of the building. Once an EV Ready Plan is generated, we can begin to plan the work. This could be scheduled in as little as a month, but it can be delayed a bit due to BC Hydro and various city permitting requirements. The actual work could take anywhere from 1-4 weeks, or much longer depending on the size of the building.

Please reach out to CF Electrical for any further questions or to schedule an assessment!
[email protected] or 778-910-4772