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-   -   RWA not letting residents install Electric Charging stations (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/electric-cars/271725-rwa-not-letting-residents-install-electric-charging-stations-2.html)

Where would this third party get it's power sourced from? Where/How will the intake from BESCOM be measured, and payment to BESCOM - Is it outside of the supply to the apartment complex?

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I don’t know the size of the apartment complex that your friend is in. However, in our place it would not have been feasible for residents to set up a charging point other than taking a power cable from their apartment down to the ground floor - and even if they did, the car would not have been parked in a parking spot (including ground floor residents). Our MC has now set up a few charging points, with a QR code based setup for paying for the charging.

A setup through a 3rd party may actually be better organized and maintained. When we live in an apartment, we need to think from the collective angle too, and not like how one would do in an individual owned house.

I’m in the process of getting an apartment in Kochi, which is slotted to be completed by 2025. I’ve been told that each and every parking space do come with an electric car charging point.

Condor, as mentioned above, the RAW receives a percentage from the payments we make to the company that is setting up the system. There are more than 500 houses, and currently, approximately 30-40 of them have electric vehicles, and the installation has been excellent. The wiring has been neatly encased and covered, with no stray wires left hanging.

Many perceive this action as an effort to generate revenue indirectly, rather than increasing maintenance costs directly. rl:

RWA's can enforce that all the wiring from the meter to the parking area is done by a select few electrical contractors defined by them and define a set of guidelines on the installation of conduits. They can also specify the gauge of the wire, the size of conduit to be used so that all residents adhere to guidelines. This will ensure that all EV connections are uniform and if something goes wrong, the electrical contractors can be held responsible.

Perfectly understandable, and one can certainly comply with these regulations. However, requiring residents to charge their cars or bikes at a location distant from their designated parking area seems impractical and unwise on their part. Additionally, the complexity of having to pay separately for charging is worth mentioning.

From the 1st post - "Management Committee has decided not to permit any individual charging stations for individual four-wheelers or two-wheelers in any of the basement parking areas."

Looks like the association is worried about fire risk in covered "Basement Parking" slot only! I'm not aware of the actual layout of OPs friends' apartment, however, most do have surface parking slots available too.

One solution would be to work with the RWA and other residents to swap a basement slot with a surface parking slot (most would be happy to do that) and then get a charger installed there using certified electricians.

The charger could be drawn from the existing power meter (if sanctioned load allows) or it could be a new connection (possibly the dedicated EV connection mentioned earlier in the thread).

On the larger topic, the future does look bleak for apartments (especially with basement or stilt parking) since the fire risk is real and even manufacturers recommend handling EV fires with 8000 gallons of water per vehicle over an extended 'burn-out' time. For most apartments, having so much water always available for their population of EVs may be difficult to retrofit.

Indeed, outsourcing the charging infra and risks to a vendor is possibly the only doable option, however, it will only be practical till EV penetration is low.

In my apartment, one of the resident has installed the electric charger for his Ola Scooter right on the pillar next to the diesel generator. So as you can imagine tension within the rest of the residents, considering the history we have with the electric Scooters especially the ones made by Ola. Also that resident has installed the charger without any prior approval from RWA and hence he was asked to remove the charger to avoid any fire mishap as it would cause very serious damage to the whole electrical circuit and to the structure of the building.

If your friend needs to install any electric charger, then he/she should consult with the RWA. The RWA will provide you with an agreement where the Owner of the Electric Scooter will be held liable for any sort of damages and repairs incurred after installing the Electric Charger. After signing the agreement, RWA will provide the a suitable place to install the charger and with the help of a good electrician, they will monitor the electrical wiring configuration to prevent any issue. This is how my apartment has come up with the rules.

Hope the same can be implemented in your friends apartment too.

This is patently illegal. There are multiple circulars by central govt and state govt mandating housing societies to enable charger installation.

In my case, the Mumbai society was reluctant. On threatening legal action, they gave a NOC (after 3 months).

Post NOC, I got the charger installed within a week (the installation guys managed thereon).

I find the opposition to charger installation absurd. The load (7.2 KW in my case for slow charging) is not any more a typical 2 ton AC. If the electric infra is so weak as to not even support EV charging, one is better going back to the dark age.

Its fair for the RWA to block individuals fitting chargers themselves. Far too many factors need to be considered like others have mentioned here.

That said - The RWA has to step in and offer a common solution for everyone. They cannot simply not allow EV charging. I'm no expert but I dont think its legal to simply block something that's becoming an essential commodity.

However, you might need to be ready to makes some sacrifices or pay extra since owners who dont have an EV or plan to buy one wouldn't want to spend their money on it now.

I agree. Nothing beats the convenience and peace of mind knowing that after a long tiring day, I can park in my designated parking spot and plug into a 15A charger and let the car charge overnight rather than have apprehensions about whether I can get a spot at the common charging location.

Firstly the RWAs should welcome this with a positive mind and think, how to make it work, instead of saying it is a potential hazard etc., Ours is a 172 unit complex and we have thought through this and have allowed the same.

Ours is a stilt level parking
Each block has a EB room/area and the respective apartment's meters / connections are available there
If anyone wants to install a charging point (within permissible load), they approach the association
The association instructs our electrical team to work with the owner to identify the correct routing of the conduit pipes and the required wiring, advise cost - If it has to run longer, it has to, with required quality wiring.
The owner buys the material and our electrician will lay the line up to the point from the respective owner's meter area
If the Vehicle manufacturer will install their own, same procedure - they will work with our electrician and do the needful
So, no crisscrossing of wires, no low quality etc., aesthetically neat and safe as well

This is our use case, for much larger complexes, other ways should work, but the intent to support should be there by the RWAs, that is the point.

Swami

How can the owner be liable for every damage that occurs post installation of the charger? This is very unreasonable.

RWAs should be trying to offer solutions rather than being intransigent. I wouldn't mind them enforcing uniform and high quality wiring. Not having own charging infra offsets the VFM proposition of EVs to an extent and is an inconvenience too. Hopefully EVs becoming more popular will make people change their minds.

I think its a mindset thing with RWA. I have to laud our RWA for this. They found a safe spot, away from the cluster of apartment towers and installed 5 charging points. And all of this was done without any strong urging needed from residents. I really welcome this pro-active and green move. It was also sensible as the spot they have chosen is quite safe. Most Bangalore tier-1 apartments that were constructed in the last decade tend to have enough open space where such a facility can be safely provisioned.

I have also answered the same in another thread from an RWA member/President perspective.

The complication:
The way most parking areas are made in Bengaluru, the building does not have provision to carry these many cables. Say your parking has 200 slots, how is it possible to carry 200 cables from meter rooms to individual parking slots? It will be even more complicated if you have multi-level parking.

Compliance:
Every two years, there is a Fire dept audit. These ad-hoc cables will cause your NOC to cancel, which can lead to the cancelling of BESCOM connections to your apartment.

Why 3rd party solutions
Common EV charging connections come from a single source, either the commercial connection of Society or a single additional connection(commercial), hence the cable and everything are isolated, and hence your fire safety is not compromised.

If you really want to change this, see actual feasibility, Easiest way of doing it would be joining the Association.

Those people need to understand RWA is nothing but the collection of all residents, represented by few who are working for the common good, blocking their personal time for the same. I would be surprised if the RWA office bearers are pocketing money, unless you live in such low life society.

If anyone has a contrarian view, they need to step up and step out to propose better plans and lead the initiative. It is a far easier effort to do than going legal route. Unfortunately most of these people take things for granted and do not move out of their couch.

The above is a general comment.