The EGen Electrical team were approached by Quay West apartments, Brisbane, Queensland, to supply and install a full turnkey EV charging infrastructure that allows every apartment owner to have an EV charger in their designated parking space, with individual billing capabilities. Quay West Apartments contains 135 apartments and 149 car parking spaces over 6 levels. It’s located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
One of the challenges faced in many buildings is that the EV charger infrastructure has to work within the restraints of the buildings existing electrical supply. Our experts successfully achieved this by implementing a dynamic load management (DLM) system for the EV charging infrastructure and the building’s existing electrical demand. The DLM worked extremely well, as it’s designed to work with the existing electrical infrastructure and eliminates the need for expensive upgrades while prioritising the building over the electric vehicle chargers.
Overview of the Solution We Provided
To begin, our EV experts visited Quay West Apartments to carry out a detailed technical site survey. The TSS begins by referencing any available plans of the current electrical infrastructure, a walk-through of the building assessing the design and existing services, and any other materials the client provided us. We then contacted the apartment building’s energy provider to ensure sufficient supply to power the apartment’s proposed EV charging infrastructure with load management implemented.
A cable tray to support the electrical circuits was installed the length of each of the six parking levels, along with multiple dedicated electrical distribution boards supporting EV charging at each of the 149 car park spaces in the building. Designing the infrastructure in this manner reduced the cost of installing an EV charger for apartment owners when they decide to upgrade to an EV. Finally, we connected the EV charger infrastructure to the building’s main switchboard, which required modifications to be carried out while de-energized. We were able to carry out the modification and connect within the allotted four-hour shutdown timeframe.
Dedicated Management Solution for the EV Chargers
We provide a dedicated EV charger management system that allows multiple chargers to be monitored and controlled with our smart dynamic load management and billing software. It offers the ability to:
- Monitor dynamic load management
- Supervise the status of EV chargers in real-time
- Bill individual EV users for monthly electricity usage
- The body corporate can set the kW/h electricity cost sold to EV charger account holders
- Turn off individual chargers if bills are not paid
- All payments from the electricity account holder’s usage are reimbursed to the body corporate
- Update the EV charger’s firmware at regular intervals
- Use public EV chargers with the cost being billed back to the users account
- Have EV charger maintenance scheduled annually
Challenges EGen Electrical Faced During the Project
The Quay West Apartment EV charging installation project came with a few challenges that we overcame. Our team was restricted to only work on weekdays with noise restraints before 9am. We were also tasked with keeping the cable tray above the 2.05-metre vehicle clearance level, with some sections being challenging as existing services and structural beams are close to the 2.05m limit.
Another challenge was that the driveway in the car park was sloped and uneven, with ceiling heights exceeding 4 meters in sections. With the use of scaffolding to access these areas, we could access and complete the installation safely and with minimal disruption to Quay West residents. Overall, the project was successful, and the Quay West Apartment residents could install and use their dedicated EV chargers by May 2023.
