EV Charging in Apartment Buildings: Installation (2026)
EV charging in apartment, residential complex and factory car parks: licence or not, load sharing within your supply, per-flat billing, what software does.
Closed user group versus public service
If a charger installed in the car park of an apartment building, residential complex, office tower or factory serves only residents, employees or the company fleet, this is a closed user group. If you want to open the station to everyone and charge a fee for the service, things change: in Turkey, public charging service requires a charging network operator licence from EPDK (Energy Market Regulatory Authority). Decide at the start which side you are on; software, tariff and reporting requirements change accordingly.
For details, see the guide to operating a charging station.
Three questions to answer before installation
- How much load can your current supply carry? In most buildings the problem is not the price of the device but the transformer and the contracted supply capacity. If several vehicles will charge at the same time, the power has to be shared.
- Who will pay for charging? Will it be deducted from the shared electricity and passed on to the service charge, or will each user pay for the energy they consume? The second requires a system that recognises the user.
- Who will be able to use it? Only residents, or guests too? If there will be guest use, authorisation and payment rules must be defined separately.
Dynamic load management: charging many vehicles without increasing the supply
Dynamic load management reads the building's real-time consumption and distributes the remaining power to the chargers. In the evening, when the building load is high, charging power is reduced; at night, when it drops, it is increased. This way, several vehicles can be charged with the existing infrastructure without increasing the contracted capacity, and the risk of tripping the breaker is also eliminated.
User identification and per-flat billing
Each user is identified by RFID card or mobile app; which flat or which employee drew how many kWh and when is recorded. Payment can be collected in two ways: the user pays from the wallet in the app, or at month end a report by flat or department is produced and passed on to the service charge or to company expenses. The critical point for site management is that consumption can be tied to a person; a meter alone cannot do this.
Which device: AC or DC?
In residential and workplace car parks, vehicles stay parked for hours, so AC (7.4-22 kW) is usually enough and costs less. DC fast charging is for commercial locations where vehicles stay only briefly. The first technical requirement to check when choosing a device is support for the OCPP protocol; if it does not support it, you cannot change software later and remain tied to the device manufacturer's system.
Items that determine the cost
Total cost is not just the device price: there are electrical infrastructure and cabling, distribution board and protection equipment, installation labour, a supply capacity increase if needed, and a software subscription. We give the item-by-item breakdown in the article on charging station installation cost.
What is needed on the software side?
Even in a closed user group you need management software: authorisation, load sharing, consumption reports, fault notification and payment collection. SmartŞarj charging station management software brings these together in one panel; if you wish, the residential complex or company gets a mobile app under its own brand. If you also need hardware, you can look at our AC and DC chargers and get a quote for your needs.
