Design Guidelines for
Successor to Current Multi-Family Electric Vehicle Charger Program These design guidelines are meant to guide development of an electric vehicle (EV) charging program designed to meet current EV charging demands, anticipate market- and policy-driven charging trends, and inspire future electric charging demand specifically for the multi-family customer segment.
Program goals and scope
The program should:
1. Enable convenient, affordable, and accessible EV charging for multi-family residents
2. Pilot financial designs that can be deployed community-wide with little or no additional funding from the City
3. Enable participation by a wide range of EV infrastructure providers
4. Pilot options for participation by all feasible multi-family property sizes and ownership structures with varying levels of existing EV adoption
Program financial design
To ensure the program is cost-effective and scalable:
1. It should provide financing (rather than up-front incentives) such as charging as a service (CaaS) that aims to reduce the impact to a property owner’s balance sheet.
2. Subsidies should be temporary, and ideally should be repaid over time. Only designated affordable housing should receive subsidies not meant to be repaid.
3. The beneficiaries of the investment – e.g. drivers and landlords – should be responsible for the repayment financing and temporary subsidies, as:
a. Drivers benefit by saving on fueling and car maintenance when buying an EV b. Landlords benefit from higher rents once EV charging becomes an amenity
4. Where a landlord or homeowner’s association (HOA) pays a share of up-front project costs, the program should enable that up-front investment to be repaid in a reasonable amount of time.
5. Charging rates resulting from the program should remain attractive to drivers.
6. Charging facilities should only be built if existing and anticipated future demand will support them.
Program technical design
To ensure the program is accessible to a wide range of infrastructure providers serving a range of needs in the multi-family space:
1. Develop program solutions compatible with EV chargers either 1) using separate meters and/or separate utility services, or 2) installed on existing house or unit meters.
2. Upgrades to electrical infrastructure should be designed to accommodate or be easily upgraded to accommodate future on-site vehicle and building electrification, using load management and shared infrastructure to minimize the need for service upgrades.
3. The program should install facilities appropriate to the site’s EV adoption levels while enabling future expansion by using strategies such as:
a. Installing chargers in individual spaces at a multi-family property when EV adoption is high enough to support cost recovery of the investment b. Installing shared chargers at a multi-family property when EV adoption is not high enough to support installation of chargers in individual spaces c. Deploying nearby public charging infrastructure (e.g. neighborhood EV charging hubs or on-street charging) when EV adoption within nearby properties does not yet support an on-site installation or when an on-site installation is technically or financially infeasible
Complementary Infrastructure
The program should involve deployment of infrastructure for alternative transportation (e.g. shared and micro mobility) in conjunction with EV chargers. Examples include:
1. Exterior e-bike and e-scooter charging infrastructure
2. Secure facilities for bicycles, e-bikes, and other small vehicles (interior or exterior)
3. Shared e-car, e-bike / bike, e-scooter / scooter, or other shared micromobility options Complementary Programming
The program should involve outreach, engagement, and other customer-facing efforts that support the transition to e-mobility. Examples include:
1. EV advisor service / project management support to assist with technical equipment specifications, navigating City processes, connecting with contractors/EV service providers, and identifying/leveraging stackable funding opportunities
2. Property Owner / Asset Manager / HOA education and outreach campaigns, including multi-family focused EV charging workshops
3. EV and e-bike community events/showcases and educational workshops
4. Efforts that facilitate e-mobility adoption amongst income-qualified customers
5. EV-aligned building/zoning code updates and permit streamlining Electric Grid Compatibility
The program should install facilities that minimize impact on the electric grid. Potential strategies include:
1. Low-power EV charging
2. Peak load and/or dynamic load management
3. EV demand response (via load management or vehicle to grid)