Why condos are different
In a detached house, adding an EV charger is between you, your electrician and the permit office. In a condo or apartment building, the parking stall, the wall, the conduit route and the electrical service are usually common property, and other owners have a say.
There is also a technical difference. A building's electrical service was sized for the building as designed. Adding one charger is easy. Adding chargers for a quarter or half of the stalls is a real engineering question, and the answer shapes everything else.
The good news is that this is a well-worn path. With a clear plan, most Edmonton buildings can offer charging to the owners who want it, and leave room for more later.
Start with the board and the bylaws
If you are an owner who wants a charger, talk to your condo manager or board first. Work on common property generally needs board approval, and some changes may need an owner vote depending on your bylaws. In Alberta these rules come from the Condominium Property Act and your corporation's own bylaws, so check with your manager or a lawyer for your specific case.
Boards that get a few requests often find it better to set a building-wide policy instead of approving one-off installs. A policy usually covers:
- Who pays for the shared infrastructure and who pays for each charger.
- How owners are billed for the electricity they use.
- Which equipment is approved, so every charger works with the building's load management.
- Who owns and maintains the chargers, and what happens when a unit is sold.
- How stalls that are not assigned, or that are rented, are handled.
The building load assessment
Before anyone picks a charger, the building needs a load assessment. This looks at the size of the electrical service, how heavily it is used today (ideally from actual utility demand data over a year), and how much spare capacity is available for EV charging.
Utility demand data matters because a building's real peak is usually well below the sum of its nameplate loads. Using measured data, where the code and the inspector allow it, often reveals more room than a paper calculation alone would suggest.
Older buildings, especially ones with electric baseboard heat, may have less room than expected. Newer buildings may have been designed with EV rough-ins already. Either way, this number decides whether you can offer full-speed charging to a few stalls, managed charging to many, or whether a service expansion is part of the plan.
Our load calculation and electrical design services cover this step, including drawings for the board and the permit.
Ways to get power to the stall
There are three common ways to feed a charger in a shared building. Each has trade-offs in cost, billing and how well it scales.
| Option | Works well when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| A. From the suite panel | A townhouse or the stall is close to the unit | Long runs through common areas, and the suite panel may not have capacity. |
| B. From common power, metered | Only a few chargers are planned | Each charger adds full load to the building unless it is managed. |
| C. Dedicated EV panel with EVEMS | Many owners want charging now or later | More planning up front, but each new stall is simple to add. |
For most mid-size and larger buildings, option C is the one we recommend. An electric vehicle energy management system shares a fixed amount of capacity across all connected chargers, so the building's service is never overloaded. See EV load management devices for how this works.
EV-ready: build once, connect later
An approach that saves a lot of disruption is to make stalls EV-ready. The feeder, managed panel and a circuit with a junction box are installed to each stall in one project. Owners who want charging now get a charger right away. Others add one later without anyone opening ceilings or drilling the parkade again.
Parkades bring their own details: concrete coring, fire separations, sprinkler lines, vehicle impact protection and ventilation. Surface lots need trenching and pedestal-mounted chargers that can stand up to snow clearing. These are what drive the cost more than the chargers themselves.
Billing and fairness
Owners who do not drive EVs should not pay for other people's charging. The most common solutions are networked chargers with software that tracks each user's energy, or a separate meter for each charger. How you can bill (by energy, time or a flat fee) depends on the equipment and current federal rules for measuring electricity, so confirm this with your installer and the charger network before you commit.
Think about visitors and rental stalls too. A shared charger in a visitor stall needs a different billing setup from a charger assigned to one owner, and both should be covered in the policy before the first unit goes in.
Even if only two owners want charging today, ask for a design that shows the whole parkade. Phase one can be small, but it should not block phase two.
Alberta Electrical can work with your board and manager from the first assessment through to commercial EV charging installation, with online job reporting so the whole board can see progress.
Common questions
Can I just plug my EV into the outlet at my parkade stall?
Not without the board's permission. That outlet is usually on common power, so you would be using electricity the corporation pays for, and it may not be rated for continuous charging.
Who pays for EV charging infrastructure in a condo?
That is a decision for each condominium corporation under its bylaws. Some fund shared infrastructure from reserves or a special levy, others charge it back to the owners who use it. Get advice for your building before deciding.
Will EV charging overload our building?
Not if it is designed properly. A load assessment shows how much capacity is available, and a load management system keeps charging within that limit.
Do we need a permit?
Yes. EV charging installations require an electrical permit. In Edmonton it is issued by the City, and larger projects may need engineered drawings, depending on their size and scope.
Codes and permit rules change and every building is different. For work on your system, talk to a licensed electrician and your local permit authority.