Can an apartment building handle EV charging without upgrading its supply?

Often, yes. Counting every charger at full rated current uses up spare capacity quickly, but AS/NZS 3000 lets the electrical designer determine maximum demand by assessment, measurement or limitation as well as calculation. With measured demand data and load management that shares the spare capacity per phase, many buildings can recharge residents' cars overnight. The designer decides whether an upgrade is needed and carries that responsibility.

Who pays for EV charging in an apartment building?

Most committees choose user-pays: residents who charge pay for their energy, and shared infrastructure is funded by an agreed formula. Options include chargers on each lot's own metered supply, a flat fee or services agreement, per-kWh recovery from session records by bay or RFID tag, or a provider who bills drivers directly. Each has different legal and administrative consequences, so get advice.

Can a strata scheme charge residents per kWh for EV charging?

Possibly, but it is on-selling electricity. The AER treats owners corporations that on-sell energy to residents as exempt sellers subject to conditions, and Victoria has a separate exemption for selling electricity to charge EVs. The charger or meter whose reading sets the price also falls under NMI trade-measurement rules, which require chargers made from 1 April 2026 that measure energy for trade to comply with NMI general certificate 14/4/0. Take advice first.

What vote does a NSW strata scheme need to approve EV charging?

EV charging is sustainability infrastructure under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. A sustainability infrastructure resolution passes if less than 50% of the value of votes cast are against it, compared with the usual 25% threshold for a special resolution. Before voting, the owners corporation must consider the costs, running and maintenance, who does the work, who owns the infrastructure and who can use it.

What is the NSW right to charge law for apartments?

On 15 October 2026 NSW Parliament passed strata amendments that, as reported, insert section 132D: an owner gives written notice to install an EV charger on their lot, the committee has three months to respond, silence counts as no objection, and unreasonable objections can go to NCAT. The owner pays and indemnifies the owners corporation. The sections commence by proclamation, so check whether they are in force.

Do apartment EV chargers need to be OCPP compatible?

It is not a legal requirement, but it is a committee's strongest protection against lock-in. OCPP is the open protocol chargers use to talk to a management system. Chargers that support OCPP 1.6J Smart Charging profiles can be load-managed by any compatible system and pointed at a different one if the software vendor changes, so the hardware outlives any single supplier.

Is it safe to charge EVs in an underground apartment car park?

It can be, with the right advice. The ABCB has published an advisory note with low-cost risk-mitigation measures for car parks, and the Electric Vehicle Council publishes fire-safety guidance for chargers in buildings. New developments typically involve the local fire service. Ask your fire engineer and insurer what applies to your car park, and remember that load management is not a fire-safety system.

Apartments & strata

23 October 2026Nohmad Engineering13 min read

EV charging for apartments and strata: a capacity-first guide

An apartment building's electricity supply, not its car spaces, decides how many EVs it can charge. Measure real demand first, set per-phase limits, and share the spare capacity with load management: this guide covers the plan, the maths, cost recovery and the Australian rules.

Last updated 23 October 2026

Key takeaways

The building's supply, not its car spaces, limits apartment EV charging: measure at least 12 months of demand, per phase, before choosing chargers.
In our illustrative 400 A building, a full-rated-current count fits 6 chargers; load management sharing the overnight headroom lets all 60 bays deliver about 19.7 kWh a night each.
AS/NZS 3000 lets the electrical designer determine maximum demand by assessment, measurement or limitation as well as calculation. Load management supports that route, but the designer carries the responsibility.
Billing residents per kWh is on-selling electricity, with AER (or Victorian ESC) exemption and NMI trade-measurement questions. Get advice before choosing a cost-recovery model.
NSW passed right-to-charge strata amendments on 15 October 2026, commencing by proclamation; Victoria published an EV-ready guide for owners corporations in August 2026.

An apartment building's electricity supply, not its car spaces, decides how many EVs it can charge. Measure real demand first, then share the spare capacity, and a building can charge far more cars than a full-rated-current count suggests, and may avoid or defer a supply upgrade [1].

EVs were 25.8% of new car sales in the first half of 2026 [2]. Try your numbers in the EV charging capacity calculator.

Why is the building's supply the bottleneck for apartment EV charging?#

An apartment building's supply is the bottleneck because every EV charger draws from the same consumer mains as the lifts, pumps, common lighting and the apartments themselves. A 7.4 kW single-phase charger draws 32 A. A few dozen of them can exceed the building's spare capacity long before the car park runs out of spaces.

Designers size an installation on its maximum demand, the expected peak load. AS/NZS 3000:2018 clause 2.2.2 allows four methods [1]:

Calculation typically counts each charger at full rated current. The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) says it suits sites needing every charger at full capacity at any time; it uses up spare capacity fast.
Assessment applies to fluctuating or intermittent loading, or a definite duty cycle, which the EVC notes load management can ensure.
Measurement uses at least a year of interval data.
Limitation caps the EV load with protective devices; the EVC treats it as a backup in a complex building.

The method is the electrical designer's decision and responsibility. Load management supports the assessment method, with protective devices as the limitation backstop; it replaces neither the design nor the protection: breakers remain the last line.

A capacity-first plan for strata committees#

A capacity-first plan for strata EV charging has four steps: measure the building's real demand, decide what each switchboard and phase can safely give to EVs, choose a charging architecture, then add load management that measures the non-EV load and shares the remainder. Chargers and brands come last, not first.

Step 1: measure what the building uses#

Get at least 12 months of demand data for the whole building [1]. Where apartments are separately metered, no single retail meter shows the total, so log the main switchboard's incoming mains per phase, and have the designer allow for the seasonal peak a short log can miss: summer for most of Australia, winter in places such as Tasmania [1].

Step 2: set limits per board and phase, with margin#

Every rating between the street and a charger (main switch, consumer mains, boards, sub-mains) is a limit; the EV allowance is the tightest one above it. Set limits per phase, because single-phase loads spread unevenly, and keep a margin for load growth, measurement error and control response.

Step 3: choose an architecture#

Shared bays on common property. The cheapest start; needs booking or overstay rules.
Chargers at lot car spaces, fed from a common-property EV board. Everyone charges at home; cost recovery needs per-bay or per-resident records.
Chargers on each lot's own metered supply. Energy lands on the resident's own bill [4], but cable runs can be long.
Staged roll-out. Build the EV board, cable route, metering and management system once, then add chargers on request, as NCC clause J9D4 does for new buildings [3].

Step 4: add load management that measures, then shares#

Static load management gives EVs a fixed allowance; dynamic load management measures the non-EV load and gives chargers what is left, per phase, every few seconds. Ask how a system shares current, what it does when its meter fails, and whether it works with any OCPP charger (see hardware-agnostic EV load management). Keep a backup: the EVC's example adds an EV main breaker and a check meter that opens an EV contactor before the main breaker would trip [1].

How many EV chargers can an apartment building support? A worked example#

How many EV chargers an apartment building can support depends on its spare current per phase, not its car-space count. In the illustrative building below, a full-rated-current count fits six 7.4 kW chargers. With load management sharing the overnight headroom, all 60 car spaces can have a charger, and each car can receive about 19.7 kWh a night.

Illustrative example only, not a design. 60 lots and 60 car spaces; a three-phase supply rated 400 A per phase; a logged worst-phase evening peak of 290 A and 170 A average from 10 pm to 7 am; a 10% margin; 7.4 kW single-phase chargers (32 A at 230 V) spread evenly; each car drives 40 km a day at 17 kWh per 100 km. Using the worst phase for all three:

Usable current = 400 A × (1 − 0.10) = 360 A per phase
Spare at the evening peak = 360 A − 290 A = 70 A per phase
Chargers at full rated current = 70 A ÷ 32 A = 2.19, so 2 per phase, 6 in total
Spare overnight = 360 A − 170 A = 190 A per phase
Energy available overnight = 190 A × 230 V × 9 h ÷ 1,000 = 393.3 kWh per phase, or 1,179.9 kWh in total
Daily need per car = 40 km × 17 kWh ÷ 100 km = 6.8 kWh; 60 cars need 408 kWh, about 35% of what is available
With all 60 cars plugged in (20 per phase), each gets 190 A ÷ 20 = 9.5 A ≈ 2.19 kW, or about 19.7 kWh in 9 hours: nearly three days' driving

The formula: cars replenished per night = (spare current per phase × voltage × hours × phases ÷ 1,000) ÷ (daily km × kWh per 100 km ÷ 100).

Spare current per phase (worst phase)Illustrative

Building loadEV current (32 A chargers; 9.5 A shares)Spare current10% margin

The same supply, read per phase: at the evening peak, 70 A of spare current fits two 32 A chargers per phase; overnight, 190 A shared between 20 cars per phase gives every one of the 60 bays about 19.7 kWh.

Illustrative building	Unmanaged (full rated current)	Managed (measured, shared per phase)
Chargers installed	6 (2 per phase)	60 (20 per phase)
Current per car overnight	32 A	32 A with up to 5 cars per phase; 9.5 A each with all 20
Energy per car over 9 hours	Up to 66 kWh, for 6 cars only	About 19.7 kWh each with all 60 charging
At the evening peak	Inside limits by design	70 A per phase shared: at a typical 6 A minimum, 11 cars per phase charge and the rest pause until load falls
Supply upgrade for 60 chargers?	Yes: 60 × 32 A ÷ 3 = 640 A per phase against 70 A spare	Possibly not; only the electrical designer can decide

How do you recover EV charging costs fairly in strata?#

Fair EV charging cost recovery in strata usually means user-pays: residents who charge pay for the energy they use, and the shared infrastructure is funded by an agreed formula. The common models are charging from each lot's own supply, a flat fee or services agreement, per-kWh recovery from session records, or a provider who bills drivers directly.

Model	How energy is attributed	Main questions to resolve
Charger on the lot's own metered supply	The lot's own retail bill	Cable route; by-law for common-property works [4]
Common-property supply, flat fee or services agreement	An agreed fee, not measured kWh	Fairness between light and heavy users; NSW section 117 services agreements [4]
Common-property supply, per-kWh recovery	Session records by bay or RFID tag	On-selling exemption; trade measurement for the instrument that sets the price [10] [11] [12]
Third-party charging provider	The provider's own accounts	Contract term, data ownership, exit and handover

Per-kWh recovery needs a record per resident: map each bay to a lot, or give each resident an RFID tag so shared bays can be attributed. In OCPP systems, session kWh normally come from the charger's own meter readings.

Why billing residents per kWh needs advice#

Who may sell. Selling energy normally needs a retailer authorisation. The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) lists owners corporations that on-sell electricity to residents as an example of exempt selling; exemptions are deemed, registrable or individual, and carry conditions [10]. In Victoria, the Essential Services Commission's General Exemption Order 2022 exempts people selling electricity to charge EVs from holding a licence; some EV charging sellers also have annual reporting obligations [11].

What may set the price. Setting a price from a measurement is trade measurement. The National Measurement Institute (NMI) says chargers made on or after 1 April 2026 that measure energy for trade must comply with general certificate NMI 14/4/0 (marking, sealing, accuracy); chargers that do not measure energy for billing have no requirements. For older chargers it is still an offence if the energy sold is less than calculated, and until 1 April 2036 NMI will act only where measurement is inaccurate or misrepresented [12].

The instrument whose reading sets the price matters more than the software collecting it. Take advice from a strata lawyer or energy-regulation adviser before billing per kWh.

What approvals and rules apply to EV charging in strata?#

EV charging rules for strata differ by state and change quickly. NSW treats EV charging as sustainability infrastructure with a lower voting threshold and passed right-to-charge amendments on 15 October 2026; Victoria has a government guide for owners corporations; new buildings must meet NCC 2022 clause J9D4. Check current status before relying on any of it.

New South Wales#

Voting. Common-property works generally need a special resolution under section 108 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, which normally fails if more than 25% of the value of votes cast are against. A sustainability infrastructure resolution passes if less than 50% are against, and EV charging stations are an express example [4]. The owners corporation must first weigh the section 132B(1) factors, including running and maintenance costs, who does the work, ownership and access [4].
Appearance. Earlier reforms stop by-laws blocking EV charging infrastructure for its appearance [5].
Right to charge. NSW Parliament passed the Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025 on 15 October 2026 [5] [7]. As reported, new section 132D lets an owner install an EV charging station on their lot after written notice: the committee has three months to respond, silence counts as no objection, and unreasonable objections can go to NCAT. Section 132E makes the owner pay and indemnify the owners corporation [6]. The sections commence by proclamation, with detail left to regulations; as at 23 October 2026 we have seen no commencement date [6].
Grants. The NSW EV Ready Buildings grant (80% co-funding up to $80,000 ex GST, including load management systems) is closed to new applications [13].

A right to install does not create capacity; a measured plan lets a committee answer owner notices consistently.

Victoria#

Victoria's Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action published an EV-ready guide for owners corporations in August 2026 [8]. It covers capacity and load management, socket-outlets versus dedicated chargers, fair cost division, billing and suppliers, approvals under the Owners Corporations Act 2006, and insurance and safety [9]. It is guidance, not law.

New buildings: NCC 2022 clause J9D4#

J9D4 requires car parks of Class 2, 3, 5, 6, 7b, 8 and 9 buildings to have labelled EV-only distribution boards connected to a charging control system that can manage and schedule charging against the building's consumption. Class 2 circuits must support a charger delivering at least 12 kWh between 11 pm and 7 am, with room for later 7 kW (32 A) chargers and sub-circuit metering. Chargers are not required [3].

Is EV charging in an apartment car park a fire or insurance risk?#

EV charging in apartment car parks is a risk to manage with expert advice, not vendor assurances. The Australian Building Codes Board and the Electric Vehicle Council both publish guidance, and the building's fire engineer, the local fire authority and the strata insurer are the right people to confirm what applies to a specific car park.

The ABCB's June 2023 advisory note sets out low-cost risk-mitigation measures for car parks [14] [15]. The EVC says new developments typically go through a consent process with the local fire service, while retrofits generally don't need fire engineers or fire services, and that where insurers impose onerous conditions, a broker can help [15]. Load management controls electrical capacity; it is not a fire-safety system.

Cloud or on-site charging management for a building?#

Charging management for an apartment building can run in a vendor's cloud or on a computer in the building. Cloud systems offer remote access and often bundle billing; on-site systems keep load management working without the internet and keep data in the building. Either way, insist on OCPP so chargers are never tied to one software vendor.

Ask any vendor: what happens to load management and authorisation when the internet drops? Where are records stored, who owns them, and can the committee export them? What do we pay each year, and what if you stop trading? Are the chargers OCPP 1.6J or later with Smart Charging support, and does the owners corporation hold the credentials to repoint them? For an on-site system, who handles updates, backups and hardware?

Already on a cloud platform? Read OCPP proxy or on-site CSMS? On a demand tariff? Read maximum demand and EV charging.

Where Nohmad Edge CSMS fits#

Nohmad Edge CSMS is an on-site EV charging management system: an OCPP 1.6J charge-point management system and a load-management engine running together on one industrial PC at the site. It measures the building's non-EV load, shares what is left between chargers per phase, and works without an internet connection.

Measures, then shares. It models incomer, switchboards, branches and chargers with a limit at each node, and a charger gets the tightest limit above it. Each budget is the limit minus measured non-EV load, per phase where meters and charger phase mappings exist (otherwise the worst phase), re-allocated every 10 seconds.
Fair by rule. Equal current (the default) or equal power; below a 6 A floor a bay pauses or holds at the floor, by policy.
Any AC charger with OCPP 1.6J Smart Charging. Limits go out as standard OCPP 1.6J Smart Charging profiles, so your chargers aren't ours. Tested on simulators (120 chargers) and real chargers including an Orbis VIARIS UNI; no published compatibility list yet.
Records for cost recovery. Per-session kWh by RFID tag or bay, exported to CSV (filtered by tag, bay and date) for your strata or billing provider. RFID allow-lists (up to 10,000 tags per charger) are managed through the API today.
On site, fail-safe. Data stays on the box; an internet drop changes nothing. If a meter goes stale (60 s by default), active chargers are set to their configured safe current and a critical alarm is raised. Load management sits on top of your protection, never instead of it.

Edge CSMS does not bill residents: no tariffs, payments, resident portal or per-apartment accounts. Backups and updates, operator roles and an optional Australian-region cloud uplink are on the roadmap. It is available for early sites by enquiry: see apartments and strata or the Edge CSMS overview.

Sources#

These public documents support the facts above; all were checked on 23 October 2026. Strata law, grants and trade-measurement rules change, so confirm status with the publisher or your adviser.

Electric Vehicle Council, Determining maximum demand for an apartment complex with EV chargers, March 2024.
CommBank newsroom, EV sales in Australia, September 2026, 30 September 2026, reporting the Electric Vehicle Council's State of EVs 2026.
Australian Building Codes Board, J9D4 Facilities for electric vehicle charging equipment.
NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Electric vehicle charger by-law resource, 2022.
NSW Government media release on the strata bill's passage, 16 October 2026, republished by Mirage News.
Zecar, NSW right to charge law passes parliament, 16 October 2026.
Parliament of NSW, Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025.
Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, EV-ready guide for owners corporations, August 2026.
The Driven, State government releases detailed guide on how to get EV charging in strata buildings, 4 August 2026.
Australian Energy Regulator, Retail exemptions.
Essential Services Commission (Victoria), Electricity licence exemptions for sellers and suppliers.
National Measurement Institute, Electric vehicle supply equipment.
NSW Government, Electric Vehicle Ready Buildings grant.
Australian Building Codes Board, ABCB advisory note on EV charging, 13 June 2023.
Electric Vehicle Council, Guidance for fire safety when installing EV chargers in buildings.

Frequently asked questions

Can an apartment building handle EV charging without upgrading its supply?: Often, yes. Counting every charger at full rated current uses up spare capacity quickly, but AS/NZS 3000 lets the electrical designer determine maximum demand by assessment, measurement or limitation as well as calculation. With measured demand data and load management that shares the spare capacity per phase, many buildings can recharge residents' cars overnight. The designer decides whether an upgrade is needed and carries that responsibility.
How many EV chargers can an apartment building support?: It depends on spare current per phase, not on car spaces. Take the supply rating less a margin, subtract the measured peak, and divide by each charger's current to get the unmanaged count. With load management the limit becomes energy: spare current × voltage × overnight hours, divided by each car's daily need. In our illustrative 400 A building that is 6 chargers unmanaged versus 60 managed bays.
Who pays for EV charging in an apartment building?: Most committees choose user-pays: residents who charge pay for their energy, and shared infrastructure is funded by an agreed formula. Options include chargers on each lot's own metered supply, a flat fee or services agreement, per-kWh recovery from session records by bay or RFID tag, or a provider who bills drivers directly. Each has different legal and administrative consequences, so get advice.
Can a strata scheme charge residents per kWh for EV charging?: Possibly, but it is on-selling electricity. The AER treats owners corporations that on-sell energy to residents as exempt sellers subject to conditions, and Victoria has a separate exemption for selling electricity to charge EVs. The charger or meter whose reading sets the price also falls under NMI trade-measurement rules, which require chargers made from 1 April 2026 that measure energy for trade to comply with NMI general certificate 14/4/0. Take advice first.
What vote does a NSW strata scheme need to approve EV charging?: EV charging is sustainability infrastructure under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. A sustainability infrastructure resolution passes if less than 50% of the value of votes cast are against it, compared with the usual 25% threshold for a special resolution. Before voting, the owners corporation must consider the costs, running and maintenance, who does the work, who owns the infrastructure and who can use it.
What is the NSW right to charge law for apartments?: On 15 October 2026 NSW Parliament passed strata amendments that, as reported, insert section 132D: an owner gives written notice to install an EV charger on their lot, the committee has three months to respond, silence counts as no objection, and unreasonable objections can go to NCAT. The owner pays and indemnifies the owners corporation. The sections commence by proclamation, so check whether they are in force.
Do apartment EV chargers need to be OCPP compatible?: It is not a legal requirement, but it is a committee's strongest protection against lock-in. OCPP is the open protocol chargers use to talk to a management system. Chargers that support OCPP 1.6J Smart Charging profiles can be load-managed by any compatible system and pointed at a different one if the software vendor changes, so the hardware outlives any single supplier.
Is it safe to charge EVs in an underground apartment car park?: It can be, with the right advice. The ABCB has published an advisory note with low-cost risk-mitigation measures for car parks, and the Electric Vehicle Council publishes fire-safety guidance for chargers in buildings. New developments typically involve the local fire service. Ask your fire engineer and insurer what applies to your car park, and remember that load management is not a fire-safety system.