Installing EV charging stations at apartment complexes and workplaces: steps, power, load management and billing

Short answer: Installing EV chargers at an apartment complex, workplace, hotel or shopping centre follows four steps: approval, assessing the available electrical capacity, planning the number of chargers with load management, and a properly designed installation. The most common mistake in shared car parks is reserving full power for every charger and upgrading the grid connection unnecessarily. With chargers that support dynamic load balancing, identify users by card and record consumption per user (OCPP, RFID and, where needed, a MID meter), many more cars can be charged from the same connection.

This guide focuses on technical planning. For owners' association decisions, obligations for new buildings and licensing in Turkey, see our guide to EV charging station rules for buildings; in other countries, local rules apply.

1. Who will charge, and how long do cars stay?

Good design starts with the usage pattern. The same ten chargers need very different power in a residential car park and in a shopping centre.

• Apartment complex: Cars park for 8–12 hours overnight. A car driving 40 km a day uses roughly 6–8 kWh, easily replaced overnight at 3.7–7 kW. What matters is sharing power fairly across many points, not high power.
• Workplace and factory: Employee cars stay 8–9 hours, visitors less. Cars plugging in at the start of the shift is exactly where load balancing pays off.
• Fleet depot: Vehicles return at set times; scheduled charging and priorities become important.
• Hotel: Guests usually stay one night; 11 kW AC is enough for most cars.
• Mall, restaurant, service area: Parking lasts 1–2 hours. AC only gives a partial top-up, so DC fast charging comes into play.

2. Find out the available capacity

You need the connection capacity, the main fuse rating and the actual load during the day. What counts is not the contracted capacity but how much headroom remains when charging takes place. Residential common-area loads are low at night; workplaces have high machine and air-conditioning loads during working hours.

A quick calculation: a 22 kW AC charger draws 32 A on three phases. Reserving 32 A for each of ten chargers means 320 A, which most buildings cannot supply. If, say, 100 A is allocated to charging with load balancing, each of ten cars connected at once gets about 10 A (around 7 kW on three phases), which is more than enough overnight. Our guide to single-phase vs three-phase power explains the basics.

If the headroom is not enough, a capacity increase is requested from the grid operator; large projects may need a transformer study. This is the item with the greatest impact on cost and timing, so first calculate how much load management can solve.

3. Load balancing: static or dynamic?

• Static load sharing: The chargers get a total limit that is divided among connected cars. Simple, but blind to the rest of the building's load.
• Dynamic load management (DLM): Current is measured at the main incomer; charging power drops when the building load rises and increases when it falls. The connection capacity is never exceeded and breakers do not trip.
• Central management: Chargers connected via OCPP can have power limits and priorities managed from software. See What is OCPP?

If more chargers will be added later, size the infrastructure for it from the start: the main feeder, distribution board and cable routes are built once and chargers are added over time.

4. Billing and consumption tracking

With chargers fed from a shared supply, the key question is who used how much electricity. Common approaches:

• Per-user records: Each user starts charging with their own RFID card or app; consumption is logged per user and passed on through service charges or a separate invoice.
• MID meter: Measures delivered energy with certified accuracy, reducing disputes where costs are split between users.
• Connecting to a charge point operator: For public, paid charging, chargers are connected via OCPP to a licensed operator's platform. Licensing rules depend on the country.
• Supply from the user's own meter: In some buildings the charger is fed from the resident's own apartment meter. No shared-cost accounting is needed, but every charger needs its own cable run and load balancing becomes harder.

5. Which charger?

Shared car parks need a multi-user, manageable charger rather than a single-user home unit. The Bemis Charger Pro 2 is designed for this: 6–10–16–32 A steps for about 4–7–11–22 kW, dynamic load balancing, OCPP 1.6, RFID reader, LCD screen, Wi-Fi and app; versions with a GSM (4G) module for underground car parks and a MID meter for billing are available. For smaller sites and workplaces, the Charger Plus 2 also offers load balancing and OCPP 1.6. Where there is no wall, the charger is mounted on a pedestal.

For malls, restaurants and roadside businesses with short parking times, DC fast chargers are the right choice. Because power, grid connection and transformer needs vary by project, DC chargers are priced on request.

6. Technical points during installation

• A dedicated circuit, correct cable size and separate protection for each charger. On long runs, voltage drop is calculated: cable size calculation.
• Residual current protection: the right RCD type is chosen for the charging circuit; see RCD types.
• Earth resistance measurement, surge protection and a tidy distribution board.
• Layout: fire exits and manoeuvring space must stay clear; chargers and cables must be protected from vehicle impact.
• Connectivity: if Wi-Fi is weak underground, plan a wired connection or a GSM module.

How it works with ENGN (Bursa only)

Our installation service is available only in Bursa, Turkey.

1. Site survey: We check the connection capacity, distribution board and cable route on site. The survey fee is TRY 2,500 + VAT and is deducted from the quote if you go ahead.
2. Written quote: A detailed quote with the number of chargers, load management proposal and materials. For residential complexes it can be presented to the owners' meeting.
3. Design: We do not install without an electrical design; the design fee is TRY 15,000 + VAT, added to the installation. Where needed, the grid operator process is handled.
4. Installation and commissioning: The installation date is set once the full quoted amount has been paid. Every circuit has a 40 A type A RCD, a 40 A circuit breaker and a surge protector as standard; over/under-voltage protection is optional. Chargers are tested and cards and users are set up.

For a single charger, the average installation price depends on cable length: up to 10 m TRY 15,000, up to 25 m TRY 25,000, up to 50 m TRY 40,000 (excluding VAT and the charger). Multi-charger projects are priced with a written quote after the survey.

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