How Shannon Wall Centre Used SWTCH Control to Save $1 Million on EV Charging
In Vancouver’s evolving urban landscape, the Shannon Wall Centre faced a pivotal question: How could a property with over 300 parking stalls adapt to meet the rising demand for electric vehicle charging without undertaking massive infrastructure upgrades?
With traditional EV charging solutions coming with a bill of over $1 million, Shannon Wall Centre sought a smarter approach to delivering a quality charging experience without so hefty of a price tag.
Here’s how they used careful planning and intelligent load management powered by SWTCH Control to meet tenant demand, achieve EV-readiness, and save over a million dollars on their project.
Planning Ahead While Meeting Today’s EV Charging Needs
The Shannon Wall Centre comprises two strata corporations serving more than 300 parking stalls. As demand for EV charging began to pick up, the centre was faced with a choice. Should it allow individual residents to pursue one-off charging installations—a common but problematic approach—or should it invest in making the property EV-ready instead?
As the Shannon Wall Centre team began to investigate, they quickly realized that piecemeal EV charging solutions would make it difficult to scale up the number of charging stations to meet even greater demand down the line. Instead, the strata council opted for a comprehensive solution that would allow it to deliver EV charging right away while also setting the stage for expanded service as more and more tenants begin to drive electric in the years ahead.
Eddie Hall, President of Hall Electrical Ltd, handled the electrical contracting for the project. He says that the approach chosen by the Shannon Wall Centre was exactly what property owners need to do to stay ahead of the rising demand for EV charging.
“I would highly recommend not allowing the one-off installations for EV chargers to start snowballing at the building. You want to get a full plan in place early that works within the power limitations of your building that you have. You don’t want to start looking at upgrading major infrastructure and power to your building because you’re being reactive instead of proactive.”
Doing more with less through load management
One of the core challenges to deploying The Shannon Wall Center’s EV charging stations was to figure out a way to do so without incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in electrical upgrade costs. Key to solving this challenge was incorporating SWTCH Control at the heart of the installation and using its intelligence to make a larger electrical load manageable for the electrical infrastructure.
At the heart of the system were five existing panels dedicated to EV charging. These provided a strong foundation on which sophisticated power management could be conducted. By using SWTCH Control to track and manage the electricity used by these panels, the installation team was able to connect eight chargers per electrical circuit, electrifying 220 parking spots across the two properties. This goes well beyond the default of needing one circuit for every EV charger and produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.
But the system goes beyond merely allowing more connections to be established. The dynamic load management system constantly adjusts to real-time demands, maintaining stable power delivery while maximizing charging efficiency across all stations.
Behind the scenes, there’s a complex dance taking place in which different cars receive different amounts of power over the course of a (typically overnight) charging session. This is what ensures the property never exceeds its electrical capacity, even with so many charging stations connected, and even with usage patterns varying. It doesn’t matter whether there are four vehicles sharing a circuit or eight; SWTCH Control is able to allocate available electricity using advanced scheduling algorithms to ensure people get the charge they need.
For the tenants, though, this is all invisible. When they return to their vehicle at the end of their charging session, they simply find their vehicle charged up and ready to go.
It’s this balance of meeting drivers’ needs while keeping costs low that makes SWTCH Control such a potent tool for multifamily EV charging installations, and it’s a balance that is perfectly captured by the Shannon Wall Centre installation.
Saving Costs While Driving Sustainability
The Shannon Wall Centre achieved dramatic savings through this approach. To install dedicated circuits for each EV charging station would have added an additional cost of over a million dollars. And even using a basic load management solution, which typically allows for four chargers to be installed per circuit, would have added about $500,000 of cost to the project.
It was only the advanced load management technology of SWTCH Control that made it possible to achieve the 8:1 ratio of chargers to circuits that slashed costs so much.
“SWTCH’s control system played a huge part,” said Eddie Hall. “It allows the engineers to design the system around what you have available, and that saves a big amount of money.”
But the benefits extend beyond simple cost. Averting the need for extensive electrical upgrades also eliminated a good deal of disruption to electrical service at the property, something which would have impacted both residents and the building’s operations.
From Planning to Execution: Ensuring a Smooth Launch
Another key contributor to the success of this installation was a piece that is too often ignored, yet can make all the difference in a project’s level of success: Planning.
In realizing the complexity of the project, the first thing that the strata council did was bring in an engineering firm experienced with large-scale EV charging projects, AES Engineering.
First, the team at AES Engineering conducted comprehensive resident surveys to understand daily driving patterns, charging requirements, and anticipated future needs. This ensured the system would meet both current demands and future growth.
Next, the implementation team at Hall Electrical sat down to develop an innovative pricing structure that would encourage early adoption while maximizing cost efficiency.
“We gave them tiered pricing,” Hall said. “So, if one person signs up, it’s going to be X amount, and if over 10 sign up, it’ll be this much, and if over 20 sign up, it’ll be this much. So, they had quite a bit of interest right off the hop.”
This choice wound up driving substantial community engagement in getting the project off the ground. It also led to a greater number of stalls being made EV-ready and equipped with a Level 2 charger than would otherwise have happened.
And the community reaped the rewards. Not only did this approach lead to reduced individual installation costs, but it also streamlined the deployment process. To sum it up: “They got a good deal on the charger installations,” Hall said.
Building Momentum: Early Wins and a Future-Ready Foundation
Shortly after installation was completed, it was clear that the thoughtful approach employed in this project was worth the effort.
To start, there are 66 active charging stations installed, and resident participation continues to grow, with more charging stations coming soon. The chargers, meanwhile, are working perfectly, keeping resident batteries topped up as desired while still operating with a much smaller electrical capacity than would be required by a typical installation.
“They’re active. They’ve been using it for a few months now, and there are still people reaching out to us to install additional chargers… I think people are kind of noticing and going, ‘yeah, I want to put one in now,” Hall said.
And the infrastructure’s future-ready design has the space primed for easy expansion, with 220 EV-ready parking spots now set up, ensuring each unit has access to an electrified spot if desired. Pre-wired conduits and scalable system architecture will make adding additional chargers very straightforward. By minimizing the time and expense needed to build up the EV charging amenity, the Shannon Wall Centre will be able to more quickly meet future resident charging needs with little cost or disruption.
Key takeaways for property owners and managers
The Shannon Wall Centre’s experience offers valuable insights for property managers considering similar initiatives. Here are some of the key lessons to take away.
Early comprehensive planning is essential. It can help you properly identify what is actually required to bring EV charging to life, likely leading to great cost savings and reduced disruption when installation begins.
Planning for the future offers significant value. It’s simpler and less expensive to complete preparatory work (laying conduit, running wiring and cabling, etc.) during the installation phase for the initial batch of chargers, vs. having to do it when you next want to install EV charging stations.
Advanced load management makes a world of difference. It simply would not be viable to install hundreds of EV charging stations on individual circuits, or even with basic load management technology. Better technology can produce far better outcomes.
Great partners are worth their weight in gold. Working with contractors, engineers, and solutions providers with experience in multifamily EV charging will lead to faster progress, better charging infrastructure, and far less headache. Opting for cheaper partners without similar levels of experience will likely cause problems.
With the right preparation, the right technology, and the will to succeed, any property can become a leader in sustainable transportation just the way the Shannon Wall Centre did. Follow their example and you can make fast, affordable progress over a far shorter timeframe than you would expect.
Want to learn more about implementing sustainable EV charging solutions at your building?
Written by
Rob Côté
Marketing Communications Manager, SWTCH
