What is the procedure if I want a charging station for my parking spot ?
STEP 1 - ON YOUR SIDE
A first step is to inform the syndic of your intention.
It is important that you ask for comparative offers to be presented at the next general assembly meeting and not just an open discussion on the matter. This especially true if you do not want to wait for an additional year to get green light for your installation.
This offers should include three essential parts :
1 - The common cabling required for the installation not only of your EV charging point but also for the others coming next.
2 - The required measures to respect the legal requirements for security (see the Royal Decree published at the Belgian Monitor in November 2022). Make sure it also foresees the control of the installation by an accredited organisation.
3 - The individual offer for an EV charging point
For that last point, be careful that the brand(s) of charging points in the offer should be compatible for load balancing to be possible. This is normally always the case, but it is best to clarify that with the companies presenting offers.
STEP 2 - ON THE SYNDIC'S SIDE
(1) First the syndic should contact Sibelga to ask for a reinforcement of the common electric meters.
Indeed, EV charing points should ideally not be connected to one's personal meter, for two main reasons :
- One of the security requirements is that firemen should be able to disconnect all EV by simply pushing on one button at the vehicle entrance of the parking. This is obviously way more complex to realize when all EV charging points are not one the same circuit.
- The second advantage of having the EV charging points on a separate circuit is that there will be no risk of power failures on your apartment's electricity due to overload and additionally it makes load balancing easier to foresee for the whole parking.
Sibelga will most likely accept to allow more power to the building. However, you have to be aware of the fact that there is a high demand for additional power overall in Brussels, which which forces them to act sparingly. This explains the importance of a good load balancing.
(2) With that information in hand, the syndic will be able to ask for offers to different companies.
Be aware that since the changes to the legislation are quite recent and the incentives to use electrical cars are increasing, the demand for installations has been growing exponentially in the past months / few years. As a result a lot of actors appear, and potentially disappear (e.g. Powerdale - read Le Soir's article ), quite quickly on the market.
This context makes it hard for the syndic or anyone else to take a stand on the reliability or the quality of the work delivered by a certain company. Indeed for most syndic companies working in private real estate, these kind of projects are new.
You may certainly suggest a company that you know of to you syndic.
(3) It is also a good practice for the syndic to inform the insurance of the building of the ongoing project.
The obligation on the insurance's side is usually simply to respect the legal requirements for security, without increasing the premium.
STEP 3 - TAKING A DECISION
The project is now ready to be presented in the next general assembly for a final decision.
Make sure you see a vote for that item in the meeting invite, as you can only legally decide if the point was effectively inserted in the invite.
Good luck !
Is it possible to reject a request for a charging station ?
Now, since there is a vote, there can theoretically be a refusal.
One might argue that since 2018, the law on condiminiums has established a right for a plug (FR: le droit à la prise - read more on Electrify.brussels ), which is true - legally you can install your own plug, at your own cost in order to be able to charge your EV.
However, since having everyone installing their own EV charging point independently would make it virtually impossible or extremely hard to respect security requirements (e.g. how do you foresee one single button at the parking entrance for the firemen to put all EV off charge if they are all connectected separately to a different network), you do need to think this project collectively instead of moving solo.
The classical problem is the clash between elderly occupants, having no intention to switch to electrical in the coming years, versus employed people who practically are left with almost no alternative but electrical or hybrid cars and usually urgently need to be able to charge on their home parking spot.
What you can do in case you suspect your building to be in that case scenario is to argue on the ratio of EV charging points that has been imposed by Bruxelles Environnement (read details).
To be specific, for a residential parking, anyone having a parking spot and an electrical vehicle should be able to charge his vehicle on his spot as from January 1st of 2025 (!).
Not respecting the ratio comes with a risk of fine as the syndic will be in the obligation of declaring the ratio of charging points to the distribution network operator (Sibelga). As fines range from a few hundred to several thousand euros, it might be important to consider complying as quickly as possible.
What about the risk of fire ?
A lot of people are worried about the risk of fire of an electrical vehicle.
Indeed, it is much harder to extinguish a burning electrical car than it is a combustion powered one. You can think of the "magic candles" that are used for kids birthday parties and which spontaneously light up when blown out.
Theoritally, an electrical car would have to be completely immerged in water for the fire to extinguish.
A few thoughts on the matter :
- First and foremost, the probability of an electrical vehicle battery catching fire is much lower than for a combustion powered car ;
- Strict security requirements have been imposed in collaboration with fire departments ;
- Also be aware that some companies have designed fireproof blankets to put on a burning car as an alternative a full immersion in water, although this is not a legal requirement ;
- Having electrical cars charging in the parking of a building should have no impact on insurance coverage of the building and normally has no impact on the premium paid.
What kind of budget are we talking about ?
You may notice that the offers received from companies vary wildly. They are often quite complicated, including references to technical specs that you would only know of as expert, sometimes wigh global prices for a bunch of completely different things, and hardly comparable.
Finally it is usually hard for the syndic to help out since they either have no previous experiences, or if they do, it is probably too recent to have a well founded opinion.
How to facilitate comparability of offers ?
- Give some initial and clear guidelines on the expectations of what the offer should include ;
- Verify the base structure is similar and at least includes the same core items :
* common cabling
* security requirements + check by an aggregated company
* load balancing
* individual charge offer ;
- Some general checks can be done :
* garantee duration on the material
* labor estimate for the full project
* possible start date
* charging speed and duration
* potential discount on a wholesale order of charging points ;
- An on-site meeting with the company's representative may often help on building an impression ;
- Try to figure out if there are hidden costs : to do so, do not hesitate to ask the company directly what is included and what is not ;
- The costs will certainly include :
* Installation of the cabling + charing points
* Installation of a new meter by Sibelga
* Budget for the cost allocation of the electricity consumption
How should this be financed ?
The condominium is free to decide on the way to finance the project of EV charging points.
The decision has to be taken by the general assembly.
An idea commonly applied:
Having the common part of the installation be financed by all the owners of parking lots (independently of whether they do want to install a charging point or not).
Anybody investing in an EV charging point for its parking spot will pay its individual cost + his/her fraction of the common cost of installation.
This way, the condominium (as in the group of all owners taken together) will progressively be paid back for pre-financing the common cabling.
This pre-financing usually happens through a raise of the reserve fund for the parkings.
Translated in numbers (randomly picked and not to be used as benchmark prices):
- Parking with 10 parking lost
- Common cost of the installation 20.000€
- EV charging point 3.000€
- Jack has an EV and wants to be able to charge his car asap
- Jeanine is not considering the installation of an EV charging point
-> Jack will pay 2.000€ through a reserve fund raise + 3.000€ for his charging point
-> Jeanine will only pay the 2.000€ and will not have a charging point
What about the cost of electricity ?
Since the installation of EV charging points will most likely be done on a common meter, there has to be a cost breakdown.
Most common way to go :
- Each user has a badge, which he uses to charge his car on his parking spot
- Each time the periodic building expenses are to be billed to the owners, the log of all charges per owner is integrated to extract the individual cost of charging on the period from the total expense of the common meter.
This service comes with a cost, several companies offering the EV charging point installation now also offer a solution for rebilling individual costs.
You still feel like getting help ?
Brussels offer a service of facilitators to guide you through the whole process.
Reach out to : facilitateur.bornes@environnement.brussels