EV charging that fits the capacity you already have

A row of twenty two kilowatt chargers can double the peak demand of a modest site. Before anything is specified, the assessment establishes what capacity your incoming supply actually has spare, measured against your real peak rather than the figure on the agreement.

Dynamic load management then shares that headroom between charge points in real time, backing off when the building's own demand rises. On most sites this removes the need for an expensive reinforcement from the distribution network operator.

Where a supply upgrade genuinely is needed, it is better to know at feasibility. Reinforcement costs and lead times can dwarf the cost of the chargers themselves, and they can change the case for phasing installation over time.

Depot charging is a scheduling problem. Vehicles sit for long periods overnight, so lower power units and off peak import usually beat fast charging, and the software that sequences vehicles matters more than the charger rating.

Workplace charging follows an eight hour dwell time and lines up neatly with midday solar generation. Sockets per space, allocation rules and how staff are billed tend to cause more debate than the electrical design.

Visitor and customer charging is a service. It needs higher power, reliable payment, clear signage and an uptime commitment, because a broken charger in a customer car park is a visible failure rather than an internal inconvenience.

Solar and charging fit together well where vehicles are present during the day. Generation that would have been exported at a low rate instead goes into a vehicle, displacing an import at the full unit rate or a public charging cost that is higher still.

For fleets that return overnight, the pairing works differently. There the value comes from a cheap overnight import rate, with any battery on site used to move energy into the charging window.

Modelling both together avoids the classic mistake of buying a large array on the assumption that vehicles will absorb the surplus, when the vehicles are actually elsewhere at midday.

Decide early who charges, who pays and how it is recorded. Staff reimbursement, fleet cost allocation, contractor access and public payment all imply different back office arrangements, and retro fitting them is more painful than specifying them.

Open protocols matter. A charge point that speaks OCPP can be moved to a different management platform later, while a closed system ties you to one supplier for the life of the asset.

Metering accuracy matters where energy is recharged to drivers or tenants, so confirm the metering specification if any money will change hands based on it.

Charge points are a connected load, so significant installations require notification or an application to the distribution network operator. Load managed schemes are frequently accepted where an unmanaged one would not be, because the peak the operator has to accommodate is lower.

Car park works bring their own consents: surfacing, drainage, lighting, accessibility and, in some cases, planning permission for canopies or substations. Landlord consent is the usual sticking point on leased sites.

NRG Solar coordinates the assessment and matches you with an installer who handles the applications. The installer holds the electrical accreditations and the design responsibility.