EV Charging Infrastructure
The electrical infrastructure, conduit, panels, and charging stations, installed to support electric vehicle charging, ranging from simple Level 2 chargers in a parking garage to high-power DC fast chargers, sized and designed around the building's available electrical capacity and how many vehicles need to charge at once.
Why it matters
EV charging demand can add a substantial new electrical load to a building that wasn't originally designed for it, and retrofitting adequate capacity after the fact, upgrading a building's electrical service or transformer, is far more disruptive and expensive than planning for future EV charging capacity during original construction, even if only a fraction of the parking is wired for charging on day one.
On a real project
A new parking garage is designed with the electrical conduit and panel capacity for EV charging at every space already roughed in, even though chargers are only being installed at a fraction of spaces initially, so future demand can be met by adding chargers without a disruptive electrical infrastructure upgrade.
Who this matters most to
An Electrician installs the charging stations and their electrical connections. A MEP Engineer plans the building's electrical capacity to accommodate both current and anticipated future EV charging demand.
Where this goes wrong
A developer installs EV chargers at only the handful of spaces immediately needed without roughing in conduit or reserving panel capacity for future expansion. When tenant demand for EV charging grows within a few years, adding capacity requires a disruptive and expensive electrical service upgrade that could have been avoided by planning for it during original construction.