EV charging in commercial buildings and the supply question

EV charging is on this site because it keeps coming up in the same conversation, not because it saves energy. It does the opposite: it adds a significant new electrical load. The reason it belongs in an energy plan is that it competes for the same incoming supply capacity as every other electrification measure, and whoever asks for it first tends to get it.

Not an efficiency measure at all, and it constrains the ones that are

Be clear what it is for

EV charging is a staff benefit, a tenant expectation, a visitor amenity or a fleet requirement. Sometimes it is a revenue line. It is not an efficiency measure, and presenting it as one inside an energy project muddles a business case that would stand up perfectly well on its own terms.

Treating it honestly as what it is makes the capacity conversation much easier to have.

The capacity question comes first

A building has a finite incoming electrical supply. Chargers consume a meaningful share of it, and so does a heat pump, and so does electrified cooking or process equipment. Install chargers without planning, and you may find the capacity for the heating electrification you needed later has gone.

Establishing the available capacity, and deciding how it should be allocated across the next decade, is the single most useful thing to do before specifying anything electrical.

Current incoming capacity, and current peak demand against it.
What is already planned that will consume capacity: heating, cooling, process, kitchen.
Whether load management can avoid a supply upgrade by staggering charging.
What a supply upgrade would cost and how long it would take, so the alternative is priced.

Load management usually beats a bigger supply

Chargers do not all need to deliver maximum power simultaneously. A vehicle parked for eight hours needs far less instantaneous power than one parked for forty minutes. Load management that spreads charging across the parking period often removes the need for a supply upgrade entirely.

That is normally a far cheaper answer than a new connection, and it is worth asking any installer to price both.

Landlord and tenant, again

On a let building, who installs, who owns, who maintains, who bills and who keeps the revenue are all separate questions, and the answers are in the lease before they are in a quote. Car park demise and parking rights are frequently less clear than either side assumes.

Settle that before anyone surveys, because it determines what is being installed and for whom.

Questions we get asked

Does EV charging help an EPC rating?

No. It adds electrical load rather than reducing it, and it is not an efficiency measure. It belongs in an energy plan because it competes for the same incoming supply capacity as heat pumps and other electrification.

Will we need a supply upgrade?

Not necessarily. Load management that spreads charging across the time vehicles are actually parked often avoids one, and it is usually far cheaper than a new connection. Ask any installer to price both options.

Who pays on a let building?

That depends on the lease and on how the car park is demised, and it should be settled before anyone surveys. Installation, ownership, maintenance, billing and revenue are separate questions with potentially different answers.

Last updated 8 October 2026.