EV Charging can't be an afterthought

I often find myself on customer calls saying "EV Charging seems very simple but it's more complicated than anyone realizes". Sure, it is easy if you have available electrical panel capacity and you mount the charger on the wall right next to the panel and you give the electricity away for free and you don't care who uses it or for how long! But that never really happens does it?

Organizations have to approach EV Charging or EV Service Equipment (EVSE) like they would any other challenge they face: with a defined and well thought out strategy. It can't be an afterthought!

Like any construction projects, EVSE projects have constraints: budget, technical, operational, etc. The largest single reason for this complexity is the large amount of electricity that EV chargers are supplying to EVs. Many facilities just aren't equipped to supply this, many new construction projects don't adequately factor in future growth of EVSE needs, and building owners don't have a grasp on how much this electricity costs them!

Our job at Sona Energy Solutions is to understand our client's constraints and develop the best solution that fits inside of them. Examples of "gotchas" that we encounter when there's no strategy in place:

All: Not understanding the nuances of state and utility EV incentive programs and leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table.

All: Having no clue about the need for EV power management or what the heck that even means (admittedly, it's a challenging concept to conceptualize..more on this later).

Condo: New developer puts in bare minimum infrastructure to meet city code which results in new condo residents footing large infrastructure costs to finish build out of EV Charging.

Apartment: Installing an EV Charging solution that doesn't include the "dwell time penalty" feature (ie - increasing fees for tenants who don't move their vehicle once it's done charging).

Commercial retail: Installing L2 stations because they're "free" and they check a "green" box and not considering a larger business strategy or if they even make sense because providing 7 kW for 30 min is about 10 miles of EV driving range and sure, it's nice and all and I can park closer to the front door but the charger is usually out of order anyway and now it's an eyesore and...I digress.

Fleet: Allowing vendors to design the solution around their product and not fleet owner's needs.

Whether it's a new construction project or a retrofit project, EV Charging needs to be part of a larger strategy and not just plopped in place because the CEO just bought a Tesla and wants to charge it at work.

Why does your organization want to install EV Charging equipment?

What is the best solution that fits your current technical/budget/operational constraints?

What is the plan for future growth?