Shared EV charging for apartment buildings · Melbourne
EV charging for your car park, installed and run by the electricians who build it
Carbon Charge adds EV charging to your building’s common-property supply. It keeps charging within the capacity the building isn’t using, and bills each resident for their own charging. The owners corporation is reimbursed for the electricity. It’s designed, installed and managed by Carbon Group Electrical, a licensed electrical contractor based in Croydon.
- REC 35801
- A-Grade licence A62716
- $20M public liability
- Certificate of Electrical Safety on every job
- OCPP 1.6J chargers
Why a shared system
Most buildings are already charging cars. Nobody is measuring it.
The power point in the car park
Every owner pays for one resident’s car
A car charging from a common-property power point is charging on the building’s electricity account. The circuit is often shared with lights, doors and other equipment, and nothing records how much went into the car.
A cable from every apartment
Rarely practical in an existing building
Running a separate cable from each apartment’s own supply to its car space means long runs through shared areas, crowded meter rooms and a new job every time someone buys an EV.
Carbon Charge
Installed once, then one charger at a time
The shared equipment goes in once, on the common-property supply. Each owner adds a charger when they want one, and each charger is metered to the resident who uses it.
How it works
From site visit to monthly statement
The work is staged so the building pays for what it needs now, and every step after the first is based on measured data rather than an estimate.
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Site visit
We inspect the switchboards, the car park and the cable routes, and request the building’s approved supply capacity from the electricity distributor. There’s no charge for the site visit.
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Shared backbone
We install metering at the incoming mains and on the board that feeds the chargers, give the site its own internet connection, and set up Carbon Charge and load management for the building.
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Chargers, owner by owner
Each owner who wants a charger gets their own circuit and charger, priced separately. Owners who don’t want one don’t pay for anyone else’s.
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Measure, then expand
We log the building’s actual demand for a full month. With that and the distributor’s figure, we tell the committee in writing how much spare capacity there is and how many more chargers the supply can take.
Load management
Charging uses the capacity the building isn’t using
A meter at the incoming mains reads the whole building’s demand, apartments included. Carbon Charge adjusts each charger continuously, so charging only takes capacity that’s spare at that moment. When several cars charge at once, they share it.
If a meter reading or the site’s connection is lost, charging is designed to drop to a safe preset level until it’s back. Each charger circuit also has its own protection on the board.
There’s no separate load controller to buy. The metering and the site connection are part of the shared backbone.
Billing
Who pays for what
Residents pay for their own charging, and the owners corporation is reimbursed for the electricity. The committee doesn’t collect money from residents or administer anything by hand.
Residents who charge
Their own energy, itemised
Each charging session is metered to the resident who used it. They pay for that energy at the building’s own electricity cost, plus a monthly access fee and a billing service fee. Every line is itemised on their invoice.
If the owners corporation isn’t registered for GST, GST is added to the energy rate so it still covers what the building pays.
The owners corporation
Reimbursed for the electricity
The building’s electricity account carries the charging energy, and the owners corporation is reimbursed for it. It pays Carbon a monthly service fee for load management, monitoring, the site connection, resident billing and reimbursement reporting.
Owners who want a charger
Their own charger and circuit
The shared backbone is a one-off cost for the owners corporation. Each charger and its circuit is priced separately, for the owner who wants it.
Every fee is set out in writing in your building’s proposal before anything is installed.
Two independent measurements
Each car space’s charging is metered, and each resident’s bill is calculated from that reading. Separately, the meter on the charging board records everything that board supplies. Each month we check the chargers’ combined total against the board’s total, so the committee can see the charging bills account for the energy the board used.
Unexplained use stands out
Because the board is measured on its own, energy that doesn’t match a charging session shows up in the monthly check, such as a car charging from a general-purpose outlet instead of a charger.
For committees and strata managers
One contractor accountable for the whole system
Design, installation, load management, billing and support all sit with Carbon Group Electrical, so there’s one number to call when something needs attention.
- A site view of charger status and faults, and a monthly statement of energy delivered and reimbursed.
- Staged cost. The shared backbone is sized for what the building needs now. Chargers are added as owners want them.
- A written capacity report after the first month, before the building commits to more chargers.
- No revenue handling. Carbon Charge bills residents directly. The owners corporation isn’t selling electricity or chasing payments.
What we’ll ask the committee for
- A letter of authority so we can request supply information from the distributor
- Whether the owners corporation is registered for GST
- Who makes the decision: the committee, or a general meeting
- A recent common-property electricity bill
- Access to the switchboards and car park for the site visit
For residents
Charge at your own car space and see what you used
Once a charger is installed at your car space, the Carbon Charge app shows your charging and your bills.
- Link your car space by scanning the QR code on your charger.
- Sign in with a one-time code sent to your email or mobile.
- See the energy each session used, and your monthly invoices.
- Pay only for your own charging. Your usage is metered to your own sessions and billed only to you.
Want a charger in your building? Ask your committee or strata manager to get in touch, or contact us directly and we’ll talk to them.
Resident sign-inEquipment and standards
Open standards, local hosting, licensed work
Chargers
OCPP 1.6J
Our chargers talk to Carbon Charge over OCPP, the open charging protocol. Because it’s an open standard, a compliant charger is designed to be repointed to a different OCPP platform later without new hardware. Our standard charger is the Teltonika EVC2.
Platform
Hosted in Melbourne
Carbon Charge runs on servers in Melbourne, and the site keeps its own internet connection, separate from residents’ home internet and the building’s IT.
Installation
Certified electrical work
All electrical work is done by Carbon Group Electrical under REC 35801 and certified with a Certificate of Electrical Safety, lodged with Energy Safe Victoria.
Questions committees ask
Before your meeting
Does our building have enough capacity?
It depends on the building’s supply and how much of it is in use, which is why we measure rather than guess. We check the switchboards on site, request the approved supply capacity from your distributor, and log the building’s actual demand for a month before recommending more than the first chargers.
Spare positions on a switchboard aren’t the same as spare capacity. The report tells the committee both.
Will charging overload the building’s supply?
Load management reads the whole building’s demand at the mains and gives charging only the capacity that’s spare at that moment. If that reading or the site’s connection is lost, chargers are designed to drop to a safe preset level until it’s restored. Each charger circuit also has its own protection on the board.
We also cap the number of chargers at the design stage, so that all of them running at that safe level at once still fits within the board’s capacity.
What does it cost?
The site visit is free. Every building is different, so we price after it. The shared backbone is a one-off cost for the owners corporation. Each charger is priced separately for the owner who wants it. The monthly fees for residents and the owners corporation are set out in the proposal, so the committee sees the full picture before deciding.
Is the building allowed to on-sell electricity for EV charging?
The owners corporation doesn’t sell the electricity. Carbon Charge bills residents directly and reimburses the owners corporation for the energy.
In Victoria, selling electricity from an EV charging station to an electric vehicle is exempt from needing a retail licence under the General Exemption Order 2022.
Does the committee need a general meeting to approve this?
That depends on your building, the cost of the work and your rules. Your strata manager can confirm whether the committee can approve it or whether it needs a resolution at a general meeting. We’ll give you a proposal written for either.
What if the internet connection drops?
Each charger holds a stored minimum-current setting, designed to take over until the connection is back. Load management then resumes. The site has its own dedicated connection, so it doesn’t depend on anyone’s home internet or the building’s IT.
Can we change provider later?
The chargers use OCPP, an open standard: a compliant charger is designed to be repointed to a different OCPP platform later without new hardware. The switchboard, circuits and metering are ordinary electrical installations on the building’s common property.
A resident is already charging from a power point in the car park. What should we do?
That charging is on the building’s electricity account and isn’t measured. The first charger on the shared backbone moves that resident onto a metered, protected circuit, billed to them. Let us know when you get in touch and we’ll look at that circuit on the site visit.
Get in touch
Arrange a free site visit
Talk to Brandon Loebert, the licensed electrician who designs and runs Carbon Charge. We cover Melbourne and surrounds.
- The building’s address
- How many lots and car spaces it has
- Whether you’re on the committee, the strata manager or a resident
- How many owners want to charge now