Guide 5:
Assessing your charging infrastructure
Before you consider installing charging stations, assess each site’s potential to supply the unique electrical demand profile.
You first must determine the site’s capacity to accommodate electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
You may already have this information if you have an energy management provider or conduct energy audits. If not, you will need to engage an energy auditor or electrical engineer from the All-of-Government construction consultancy services panel. They will be able to determine the capacity to meet the unique demand profile for the site.
Construction consultancy services
Before engaging an energy auditor or electrical engineer, consider if:
- the site has other tenants
- other government agencies are co-locating
- those other tenants or agencies have a current or future need for electric vehicle infrastructure.
Agencies should engage with other government tenants to determine any current or future requirements for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Where possible, electric vehicle charging carparks should be shared with other agencies, implementing a user-pays billing model.
If one or more of the other tenants are a government agency, a site infrastructure assessment should be completed on behalf of all agencies at that site. This ensures that significant design and installation work, if required, is only done once, and costs can be shared.
Conduct a fleet and travel audit at the same time as the infrastructure assessment to figure out the best options for all tenants involved.
What to do if you own the building
Steps you must take when you own the building.
- Complete a transition plan based on this guidance and establish an electric vehicle charging infrastructure plan (both at a site-specific and agency portfolio level).
- Review funding sources for electric vehicle charging infrastructure installations (CAPEX and OPEX).
- Prepare an electric vehicle charging infrastructure delivery roadmap with targets and timelines, aligned with your agency’s electric vehicle transition plan and the Government’s plans to be carbon neutral by 2025.
- Asset management plans must be updated to reflect any new infrastructure needs, and actively managed throughout the asset lifecycle.
What to do if you are leasing the office space
Steps you must take when you’re leasing office space.
- Consider where you are in the lease life cycle. Electric vehicle infrastructure is particularly relevant for lease terms of three years or longer.
- Engage with other tenants, especially government tenants.
- Discuss the requirement for on-site electric vehicle charging capacity with building owner. (The owner’s approval will be required to install new charging assets.)
- Consider asset ownership models:
- agency owned
- landlord owned
- shared asset between agencies
- as-a-service by the landlord. (In this instance, it is preferred that the landlord own the cabling and switchboard assets and agencies own the charger unit assets).
- Ensure that the charging infrastructure is captured within the lease and avoid reinstatement clauses associated with the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
What to do if you are building or leasing new office space
Steps you must take when you are building or leasing new office space.
- Understand your requirements and discuss these with the building owner.
- Consider opportunities to engage with other tenants to understand collective needs, the appropriate asset ownership model, and how to capture the asset in the lease.
- Specify EECA approved smart chargers to support efficient use of energy and off-peak energy consumption.
Other considerations:
- There are many different types of charging stations, and the technology is continuing to change. Socketed Smart AC charging stations are preferred for workplace charging, and Smart-ready should be the minimum requirement.
- Understand the available capacity and cost model for any proposed infrastructure. Increasing the electrical capacity or the peak load of a site will impact your electrical network tariffs.
- The Electric Vehicle (EV) Chargers for Commercial Applications (SNZ PAS 6010:2021) includes a pathway and checklist to help fleet managers with charging infrastructure considerations in their electric vehicle transition (Appendix A – EVSE Pre-Purchase Assessment, from page 48).