Commercial EV Charger Installation for Workplaces, Fleets and Condos in South Florida

Commercial EV charging

Chargers sized to the building, not just the parking lot

Commercial EV Charging Is a Capacity Project First

A single home charger is a circuit. Ten chargers in an office garage, a row of fast chargers at a retail center, or charging for every assigned space in a condo building is a question about the building's electrical service, the parking structure and, often, the utility. That is why commercial EV charger installation starts with the electrical system rather than the charger catalog.

KRW Electric (Florida license EC13012832) installs EV charging for:

• Workplaces: employee and visitor charging in office garages and surface lots.
• Retail and hospitality: customer-facing chargers at shopping centers, restaurants and hotels.
• Fleets: depot charging for vans, trucks and service vehicles.
• Multifamily and condominiums: charging for assigned spaces, shared amenity chargers and building-wide make-ready.

For a charger in a garage at home, see home EV charger installation. This page is the commercial and multifamily side.

Level 2 or DC Fast Charging

The first decision is how fast vehicles need to charge, because it sets everything else.

Level 2

Level 2 chargers run on 208 or 240 volts AC and suit places where cars sit for hours: offices, apartments, condos, hotels and overnight fleet parking. Each one is a modest load, so a building can often add several on its existing service, particularly with load management. Most workplace and multifamily projects are Level 2.

DC fast charging

DC fast chargers convert power on site and deliver it straight to the battery. They suit retail stops, highway-adjacent sites and fleets that need quick turnaround. Each unit is a large three-phase load, and a site with several usually needs a new or upgraded service, a dedicated transformer and early involvement from the utility. They also need more space for equipment and more conduit.

Many sites end up with a mix: Level 2 for the long-dwell spaces and one or two fast chargers where turnover matters. The cost side of that choice is covered in commercial EV charger installation cost factors.

Panel Capacity, Service Size and Load Management

Before anyone picks a charger count, find out what the building can carry. That means a load calculation against the existing service, backed by the building's actual demand history, and a look at where the chargers would connect: the house panel, a garage panel, a new feeder, or a new service.

Load management changes the answer. Networked chargers can share a fixed amount of capacity, throttling each other so the group never exceeds what the circuit or service can supply. For a garage full of cars that sit all day, managed Level 2 charging often delivers enough energy per car without upsizing the service. The design has to show how that limit is enforced, and the engineer will tie it to the applicable provisions of the electrical code, published by NFPA as NFPA 70.

When the numbers do not work, the options are a larger service, a separate service for the chargers, or phasing: fewer chargers now, with the infrastructure for more. Service upgrades, switchboards and utility coordination are covered on commercial service and switchgear.

Make-Ready: Building for the Chargers You Will Add Later

The expensive part of a charging project is rarely the charger. It is the trenching, coring, conduit and distribution needed to get power to the parking space. Doing that once, sized for the future, is almost always cheaper than coming back.

• Conduit to future spaces, capped and labeled, run while the trench is open or the garage ceiling is accessible.
• Pull boxes and pedestal bases placed for the eventual layout, not just phase one.
• Distribution with room to grow: spare breaker spaces, a panel sized for the full build-out, or a spare section on the switchboard.
• Space for equipment: a transformer pad or equipment room location reserved for fast chargers later.
• Network and data pathways for chargers that need a connection.

On new commercial buildings, the Florida energy code includes an EV charging appendix (Appendix CC), but the DBPR summary of the 2023 energy code notes it is not mandatory unless an adopting ordinance specifically references it. Whether it applies is a question for the building department and the design team. For a new building, the new construction electrical page covers where make-ready fits in the sequence.

Parking Garages and Surface Lots

Parking garages

• Post-tensioned slabs. Many South Florida garages are post-tensioned, and coring or anchoring into them without scanning first can cut a tendon. Scan before drilling.
• Routing. Surface-mounted conduit along the ceiling and columns is common; it has to be protected where vehicles can hit it and supported to stay put.
• Protection. Wheel stops or bollards in front of wall- or pedestal-mounted chargers.
• Low levels. Ground-level and below-grade garage floors can flood. Keep distribution equipment high, and see commercial service and switchgear for flood considerations.

Surface lots

• Trenching or boring through asphalt and landscaping, with depth and conduit type chosen for vehicle traffic.
• Pedestals and bases designed for wind and anchored accordingly.
• Salt air and sun: enclosure ratings, cable management and hardware that hold up outdoors near the coast.
• Lighting: charging spaces are used at night; see commercial lighting and controls for site lighting.

Condominiums and Multifamily Buildings

Florida's condominium statute, section 718.113(8), Florida Statutes, says a declaration or restrictive covenant may not prohibit, or be enforced to prohibit, a unit owner from installing an EV charging station within the owner's limited common element or exclusively designated parking area. The same subsection sets the conditions:

• The unit owner pays for installation, operation, maintenance and repair, including hazard and liability insurance, and remains responsible for removal (s. 718.113(8)).
• The electricity must be separately metered or metered by an embedded meter and paid by the unit owner (s. 718.113(8)).
• The board may require compliance with safety codes and reasonable architectural standards, use of licensed installers, a certificate of insurance naming the association, and reimbursement of any increase in the association's insurance premium (s. 718.113(8)).

In practice, one owner's charger is easy. The twentieth is not, because every charger draws from the same building service. Boards and managers get ahead of that by planning building-wide: assess the service, decide how capacity will be shared, set a standard installation method and metering arrangement, and approve owner requests against that plan. Association-installed common-area chargers go through the association's own approval process; check with association counsel on the governing documents.

Our page for property managers and condo associations covers how we work with boards on building-wide electrical work.

Accessibility for EV Charging Spaces

Accessibility for EV chargers is still being settled at the federal level. The U.S. Access Board's technical guide on EV charging stations says it intends to propose accessibility guidelines specific to chargers, and in the meantime offers recommendations. Among them: a charging space at least 11 feet wide and 20 feet long with an adjacent access aisle at least 5 feet wide, chargers on an accessible route, and operable parts within reach range, no higher than 48 inches above the ground space.

The design team and the building department decide what applies to a given site. It is much easier to lay out an accessible charging space at design stage than to find room for one after the conduit is in.

FPL Programs and Utility Coordination

FPL lists several business EV programs. Check current status with FPL before counting on any of them; we don't quote incentive amounts.

• Make-Ready Credit. According to FPL, the program helps with utility-side infrastructure (service lines, transformers, switchgear, conduit, wiring and trenching) for public DC fast charging and for Level 2 at public locations, workplaces, fleets and multifamily properties. FPL says it does not cover the chargers or customer-side equipment, and funding is first-come, first-served.
• FPL EVolution Fleet. A turnkey option in which, per FPL, FPL designs, procures, installs, owns, operates and maintains the fleet charging equipment under a service agreement.
• Third-party charging support. FPL also advises businesses installing their own chargers on power delivery and utility upgrades.

Any project that adds significant load needs the utility early, program or not. Municipal utility customers, such as those of Homestead or Lake Worth Beach, work with their own utility instead of FPL.

Permits and Public Charging Rules

Commercial EV charging needs an electrical permit from the building department with jurisdiction. Florida has also preempted local regulation of EV charging stations to the state: under section 366.94, Florida Statutes, local governments may not enact their own EV charging station ordinances and must issue permits based solely on standards set by rule of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and other state law.

Two other points from the same statute matter to owners of public chargers: a charger at a station must be registered with that department before it is placed into service for public use, and it is unlawful to park a vehicle that cannot charge in a space designated for EV charging.

The permit and inspection process itself is covered on commercial electrical permits and inspections.

How a Commercial Charging Project Runs

1. Define the use: who charges, how long vehicles park, how many ports now and later.
2. Assess capacity: load calculation, demand history and the distribution available near the parking.
3. Choose equipment and load management with the owner and the charger network provider.
4. Design: the engineer of record prepares the drawings where the project needs them; KRW Electric provides design-assist on routing and constructability.
5. Utility and permits: service changes coordinated with the utility, electrical permit pulled.
6. Install: trenching or garage routing, distribution, conduit, pedestals, chargers.
7. Inspect, commission and hand over: final inspection, charger activation with the network provider, and as-installed documentation.

Charging is often one part of a larger job. See commercial electrical services for the full scope and commercial remodel and tenant improvement when chargers come with a build-out.

Planning the work? Send the drawings or a description through our contact page or call (305) 359-7312.