Charging in residential and commercial buildings

Charging systems in residential and commercial buildings have a positive effect on the property's value. Having charging points in condominiums can alleviate the sale of apart-ments and, in turn in commercial buildings have a positive effect on the attractiveness of the property [80]. The possibility to charge can attract visitors, new residents, customers, or even businesses to set up an office in such well-equipped locations. While investing in charging points can be costly, especially when it comes to larger systems, it can none-theless be a profitable investment.

The electric vehicle charging infrastructure's investment costs mainly consist of the price of the electric connection, the purchase price of the charging device, and the costs of installing the charging device. The amount of the investment costs is also substantially affected by whether the charging readiness is constructed and devices installed when building a new property or added to an old system in existing buildings, in which case technical work and modifications to electrical systems are often required. [56]

The construction of the charging points requires decision making by the property owner.

If there are multiple real estate owners like in condominiums, fair cost-sharing is a critical issue. This mainly applies to residential buildings and housing associations, and other co-owned properties. Housing associations have an essential role in ensuring that vehi-cles can be loaded in car parks managed by the association. However, standard prac-tices are still emerging, and condominiums have not yet established a routine to handle

charging devices' requests. Clarification and harmonization of decision-making and li-censing practices related to the construction of charging points for housing companies are an integral part of promoting electronic transport. [80]

Decisions on properties must be based on equal treatment of shareholders when sharing construction, maintenance, and operating costs. The easiest way to get started is to build charging points initially only for the amount that does not yet cause changes to the prop-erty's electrical system [29, 80]. If there is a sufficient amount of capacity, installing charg-ing points can be decided by havcharg-ing a simple majority in the Annual General Meetcharg-ing, provided that the shareholders' obligation to pay does not become unreasonable. To increase the capacity can also be decided by a simple majority in the Annual General Meeting, even if it is done solely for the construction of charging points. [80]

Before deciding on investing in a charging system, both residential and commercial prop-erty owners ought to consider following factors [80, 29]:

- Who is charging and what is the demand for charging points now and in the near future? In condominiums the principle of equal treatment of shareholders requires that all shareholders are inquired about their willingness to acquire a charging point. Charging in both residential and commercial locations should take into ac-count the scalability of the charging system when the demand grows.

- How many charging devices can be installed and added without making modifi-cations to the electrical system of the building? What is the condition and ade-quacy of buildings internal network and electricity connection?

- Who pays the project and equipment costs? In residential buildings if all the park-ing spaces are converted to be suitable for chargpark-ing and the houspark-ing association is paying for the construction work, a consent from all shareholders will be needed. Otherwise those shareholders who wish to charge or have the option will pay for the work.

- When choosing a charging device it must be suitable for the use and the environ-ment. The charging points ought to be placed in a way so that the electric vehicle can be connected to them with a charging cable of normal length.

- In the planning of inputs, provision must be made for load controlling, energy consumption metering and remote controlling. For safety reasons, it may also be

necessary to connect the charging system to other automation or security sys-tems, such as a fire alarm system, in which case, charging can be interrupted under the control of a fire detector.

- The possibility of supplying electricity from the vehicle to the grid must be taken into account if possible. Other sustainable energy solutions like solar energy and battery energy storage systems can be used to cut peak loads and to provide affordable electricity at all times.

Separate charging of charging electricity is recommended, and this is often particularly important for the property owner to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all. The actual metered electricity consumption is the best charging basis. A higher parking fee can also be set for car parks managed by the company to cover charging electricity costs. Espe-cially in commercial locations like in the workplace charging, possible billing needs should be taken into account. [80] If the operation of charging points is outsourced, the billing of the user is done automatically by the third party, and so the property owner does not have to worry about maintaining the charging system.