EV Charging for Commercial Buildings: NCC Requirements, Infrastructure Planning, and Managed Charging

Australia's transition to electric vehicles is no longer a distant trend — it is actively reshaping the requirements placed on new buildings. The 2022 National Construction Code (NCC 2022), which became mandatory for new building projects from 1 October 2023, introduced the country's first enforceable EV infrastructure requirements for commercial and residential buildings. For property developers, building managers, and strata committees, understanding what the code demands — and planning beyond the minimum — is now a core part of responsible building design.

This article covers what the NCC mandates, the three levels of EV readiness, charger types and their infrastructure implications, the power management challenge that comes with scale, and the network requirements for a properly managed EV charging system.

What the NCC 2022 Requires for EV Infrastructure

The NCC 2022 does not require that EV chargers be installed in new buildings. It requires that buildings be built ready for them — meaning the electrical infrastructure is in place so that chargers can be added later without the costly process of cutting concrete, trenching conduit, or upgrading switchboards from scratch.

Under Section J (Energy Efficiency), the requirements differ by building class:

Class 2 buildings (residential apartment buildings): 100% of car park spaces must be EV-ready. The electrical distribution boards dedicated to EV charging must be installed in each storey of the car park, and the circuits must be capable of supporting a charger that delivers a minimum of 12 kWh between 11:00 pm and 7:00 am.

Class 5 and 6 buildings (offices, retail): At least 10% of car parking spaces must be EV-ready.

Class 3, 7b, 8, and 9 buildings (hotels, warehouses with retail, manufacturing, healthcare, assembly): At least 20% of car parking spaces must be EV-ready.

All applicable buildings must also provide electrical distribution boards dedicated to EV charging on each storey of the car park. These boards must include a charging control system capable of managing and scheduling EV charging in response to total building demand, and must contain space for individual sub-circuit metering of EV charging electricity use — including at least 36 mm width of DIN rail per outgoing circuit for future metering equipment.

Standalone Class 7a buildings (car parks as standalone structures) are exempt from these requirements.

State Adoption

NCC 2022 does not take effect uniformly across all states at the same time. Most states and territories adopted the code with an effective date of 1 October 2023, but developers should confirm the adoption status and any state-specific variations with their relevant building authority, as individual states retain the right to modify or delay NCC adoption.

EV-Ready, EV-Capable, and EV-Installed: Understanding the Three Levels

The terminology used in the industry — and in conversations with electricians, developers, and consultants — does not always match precisely. It helps to understand the three common levels of EV infrastructure:

EV-ready is the NCC minimum. Conduit and electrical cabling are installed to each applicable car space. No charger is fitted, but the cabling runs are in place so that a charger can be connected without excavation or significant additional electrical work.

EV-capable goes a step further. In addition to the conduit and wiring, the electrical switchboard has been designed with sufficient capacity to support future charger installation. This means the switchboard includes appropriately rated circuit breakers, the load calculations have been done to confirm available capacity, and the board itself has physical space for the additional circuits. An EV-capable building can have chargers installed quickly; an EV-ready building may still require a switchboard upgrade.

EV-installed means an operational charger is physically installed at the car space and available for use.

For new developments, the difference between EV-ready and EV-capable comes down to design intent. An electrician can run conduit to NCC minimums without the switchboard being properly sized for even 20% simultaneous charging. Developers who plan for EV-capable infrastructure from the outset will avoid expensive switchboard replacement within the first five to ten years of a building's life — which, given the rate of EV adoption in Australia, is a realistic planning horizon.

The Two Types of EV Chargers for Commercial Buildings

Not all EV chargers are equal. The appropriate charger type for a commercial building depends on how long cars are typically parked, how much turnover the car park sees, and what electrical infrastructure is available or planned.

Level 2 AC Chargers

Level 2 (alternating current) chargers are the standard solution for most commercial buildings. They typically deliver between 7 kW and 22 kW, which is sufficient to charge a modern EV from near-empty to full during a standard working day or overnight stay.

DC Fast Chargers

DC fast chargers convert AC power to DC within the charger unit itself and deliver it directly to the battery at much higher rates. They are suited to high-turnover environments where vehicles need to be meaningfully charged within 20 to 60 minutes.

Comparison Table: Level 2 AC vs DC Fast Charger

Feature	Level 2 AC Charger	DC Fast Charger
Power output	7 – 22 kW	50 – 350 kW
Typical charge time	6 – 12 hours (full charge)	20 – 60 minutes
Hardware cost (per unit)	$1,500 – $5,000	$25,000 – $75,000+
Installed cost (per unit)	$3,000 – $10,000	$80,000 – $250,000+
Best suited for	Offices, residential buildings, long-stay car parks	Shopping centres, highway rest stops, high-turnover visitor parking
Electrical infrastructure	Single-phase or three-phase, 32 A circuit	Three-phase, high-capacity circuit; often requires transformer upgrade
Building impact	Low — integrates into existing switchboard capacity with planning	High — may require new transformer, dedicated electrical room

For most office buildings, Class 5 developments, and long-stay commercial car parks, Level 2 AC chargers are the right choice. DC fast chargers are a significant capital investment that only makes sense where dwell time is short and charging demand is high — think shopping centre visitor car parks, not the basement of a 10-storey office building.

For more context on EV charging in multi-unit residential settings, see our article on EV charging in strata buildings.

The Power Management Challenge

The NCC mandates EV-ready infrastructure, but it does not solve the fundamental electrical challenge that emerges when a significant proportion of a car park's spaces are actually in use for charging. That challenge is load — specifically, simultaneous load.

Consider a realistic scenario: a 200-space commercial car park with 10% EV-ready under the NCC minimum for a Class 5 office building. That is 20 spaces. At a modest 7 kW per charger, 20 simultaneous charging sessions represent a 140 kW peak load dedicated to EV charging alone. Scale that to a Class 7b or 8 building with 20% of 200 spaces (40 chargers), and the number reaches 280 kW. For most commercial buildings, that far exceeds the available electrical headroom in the existing supply.

This is not a theoretical problem. It is the most common reason EV charging projects stall after construction: the infrastructure is in the walls, but the building's electrical supply cannot support simultaneous use without expensive grid connection upgrades.

The Solution: Smart Charging and Load Management

Smart charging — also called dynamic load management or power sharing — addresses this by coordinating the charging output of all connected chargers so that the total load never exceeds the building's available electrical capacity. Instead of each charger drawing its full rated output simultaneously, the charging management system allocates available power across active sessions, increasing or decreasing the charge rate of individual chargers in real time.

The practical result: a building with 40 EV-ready spaces and a 100 kW electrical allocation to EV charging can still serve 40 vehicles charging simultaneously — each just charges at a lower rate than maximum. For a car park where vehicles typically stay for six to eight hours, this is entirely acceptable. A vehicle charging at 4 kW for eight hours receives 32 kWh — more than enough range for most daily commuters.

Smart charging systems also enable demand response: the ability to reduce charging loads automatically during periods of peak grid demand, which is increasingly relevant as energy retailers offer time-of-use tariffs and demand charges to commercial customers.

These capabilities are made possible by the OCPP standard, covered in the next section.

OCPP: Why the Protocol Your Chargers Use Matters

OCPP stands for Open Charge Point Protocol. It is the open industry standard that governs communication between EV chargers and a central Charge Point Management System (CPMS). OCPP-compliant chargers can be monitored, managed, configured, updated, and billed through any compatible management platform.

The version most widely deployed in Australia today is OCPP 1.6 (JSON), with OCPP 2.0.1 being the current standard for newer installations offering improved security, device management, and smart charging capabilities.

Why OCPP Compliance Is Non-Negotiable

A non-OCPP charger — one that uses a proprietary protocol — can only be managed through the manufacturer's own platform. This creates vendor lock-in: if the manufacturer's platform is discontinued, pricing increases substantially, or the management features do not suit the building's needs, the chargers cannot be migrated to an alternative system without hardware replacement.

OCPP-compliant chargers, by contrast, are platform-agnostic. The building owner or manager can choose any OCPP-compatible CPMS, switch platforms as needs evolve, and integrate chargers from multiple manufacturers into a single management interface.

For commercial buildings where the EV charging infrastructure will be in place for 15 to 20 years, OCPP compliance is a fundamental procurement requirement — not an optional feature.

What OCPP Enables in Practice

Remote start, stop, and configuration of charging sessions
Real-time monitoring of energy consumption per charger and per session
Load management and power sharing across the charger network
User authentication (RFID card, app, QR code)
Session billing and payment processing integration
Firmware updates over the air
Fault detection and alerting without a site visit

Network Requirements for Managed EV Charging

An OCPP-managed EV charging system is fundamentally a networked system. Each charger communicates with the central management platform over IP, which means every charger needs reliable network connectivity. This is where building technology infrastructure intersects directly with EV charging — and where poor planning creates ongoing operational problems.

Connectivity to Each Charger

The preferred connection method for EV chargers in commercial buildings is wired Ethernet using Cat6 cabling. Ethernet is more reliable than Wi-Fi in the electromagnetic environment typical of a multi-storey car park (concrete, structural steel, interference from other electrical systems), and it avoids the Wi-Fi dead spots that are common in basement car parks.

Cat6 cabling should be run from a network distribution point on each car park level to each charger location during construction — alongside, or within the same conduit run as, the electrical cabling. Doing this during the build is far cheaper than retrospective cabling installation.

Wi-Fi is an acceptable fallback where Ethernet runs are not practical, but it requires a properly designed wireless network with adequate coverage at every charger location, which adds complexity and ongoing maintenance overhead.

For more on cabling infrastructure during the build phase, see our article on cabling infrastructure for EV installations.

Dedicated VLAN for EV Charging

EV chargers must be placed on a dedicated VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network), isolated from other building networks — including building management systems, the corporate or tenancy network, and any residential or visitor Wi-Fi.

The reasons for this are both security and operational. Chargers communicate externally to the CPMS cloud platform and, in payment-enabled deployments, to payment processing systems. Placing chargers on a shared network exposes those networks to any vulnerability present in the charger firmware. VLAN segmentation ensures that even if a charger is compromised, the attack surface is contained.

This is consistent with broader best practice for any IoT or building systems network. For a detailed treatment, see our article on VLAN segmentation for EV chargers.

Internet Connectivity and the CPMS

The Charge Point Management System is typically a cloud-hosted platform. The chargers at the building communicate with this platform over the internet — sending session data, receiving configuration updates, and enabling remote management by the building manager or EV charging operator.

This means the building requires reliable internet connectivity with sufficient bandwidth and uptime to support the charger network. In practice, a commercial building with managed internet already in place simply needs the charger VLAN to have routed internet access. The bandwidth requirements per charger are modest (OCPP traffic is low-volume), but the connection must be stable — a charger that loses connectivity to the CPMS may stop functioning correctly or revert to default charging behaviour that bypasses load management.

For buildings integrating EV charging into a broader connected building systems architecture, the charger network should be included in the overall network design from the start.

Who Pays for Charging: The Three Commercial Models

The question of how EV charging is funded in a commercial building is separate from the question of infrastructure. Once the chargers are installed and operational, the building owner or manager needs a billing model that is equitable, scalable, and administratively manageable.

Free charging for staff or tenants. The building absorbs the electricity cost as a tenant amenity. This model is operationally simple — no per-session billing, no payment integration required. However, it is financially unsustainable as EV adoption grows. A building with 20 chargers running at an average of 10 kWh per day each is consuming 200 kWh daily — at commercial electricity rates in Australia, that is a meaningful ongoing cost that will only increase.

Cost recovery billing. Tenants or staff are billed at the building's electricity cost per kWh, with no markup. This requires individual sub-circuit metering at each charger (which the NCC already mandates infrastructure for) and integration between the CPMS and a billing system. The building recoups its electricity cost without generating revenue. This model is appropriate for buildings where EV charging is an occupant service, not a commercial offering.

Commercial rate billing. Users are charged at a market rate per kWh or per session, above the building's cost of electricity. The building generates revenue from the charger network. This requires payment terminal integration (RFID, app, or credit card) and a CPMS platform with billing capabilities. It is the appropriate model for visitor car parks, hospitality venues, and any setting where non-tenant third parties may charge their vehicles.

The choice of billing model should inform the CPMS platform selected and the charger hardware chosen — both need to support the payment and metering capabilities the model requires.

Planning for New Developments vs Retrofit

The cost and complexity of EV infrastructure differs substantially depending on whether it is designed into a new development or added to an existing building.

New Developments

In a new development, conduit, cabling, and switchboard design are cheap. Conduit installed during construction costs a fraction of what it costs to core-drill and trench through finished concrete. The strategic approach for new developments is:

Design the electrical distribution board to support 100% EV charging capacity, even if only 10–20% of chargers are installed initially. The cost difference in switchboard capacity at design stage is small compared to a switchboard replacement five years later.
Run Cat6 data cabling to every EV-ready car space during the fit-out, alongside the electrical conduit.
Design the car park network (data switches, distribution boards, VLAN structure) before construction is complete.
Engage a building technology consultant alongside the electrical engineer to ensure the data and network infrastructure aligns with the intended CPMS platform.

For a comprehensive view of technology planning during the design phase, see our article on technology planning for new developments.

Retrofit Projects

Retrofitting EV charging into an existing building is significantly more complex and expensive. The key steps are:

Electrical capacity audit first. Before any charger procurement, commission an audit of the existing electrical supply. Determine available headroom after current building loads, assess the condition of switchboards, and calculate the realistic number of chargers the building can support without a grid connection upgrade.

Prioritise the right spaces. In a retrofit, it is rarely cost-effective to bring every space to EV-ready standard simultaneously. Prioritise the most-used and most accessible spaces — typically those closest to the electrical distribution point on each level, as conduit runs will be shorter.

Budget for civil works. Underground car parks often require concrete cutting and trenching for conduit runs. This is the largest cost variable in a retrofit project. A building where the electrical distribution board is centrally located may have far lower civil costs than one where the board is at one end of a long car park.

Plan the network alongside the electrical. Retrofit cabling projects for EV chargers that neglect the data network create expensive rework. Cat6 runs should be planned and installed at the same time as the electrical conduit.

FAQ

Q: Does the NCC 2022 require that EV chargers be physically installed in new commercial buildings?

A: No. The NCC 2022 requires EV-ready infrastructure — conduit, cabling, dedicated electrical distribution boards, and a charging control system capable of managing load. It does not require that operational chargers be installed at the time of construction. The intent is to ensure that chargers can be added in the future without major structural or electrical remediation work.

Q: What is the difference between an OCPP charger and a non-OCPP charger, and does it matter for a small installation?

A: OCPP is the open standard that allows a charger to communicate with any compatible management platform. A non-OCPP charger only communicates with its manufacturer's proprietary system. Even for a small installation — say, four to six chargers in an office building — OCPP compliance matters because it avoids vendor lock-in, enables load management (critical for preventing capacity breaches), and allows the building to migrate to a different management platform if needed. Specifying non-OCPP chargers to save money upfront typically creates higher costs and reduced flexibility over the life of the installation.

Q: Can a building's existing internet connection support a managed EV charging network?

A: In most cases, yes — OCPP traffic is low-bandwidth. However, reliability is more important than speed. The charger network needs stable internet connectivity to maintain the connection between chargers and the cloud CPMS. The more important network design consideration is VLAN segmentation: EV chargers should be on a dedicated VLAN, isolated from tenancy, building management, and other building networks. This is a network configuration task, not a bandwidth task, and should be planned as part of the building's overall network design.

Q: How does smart charging prevent the building from exceeding its electrical capacity when many chargers are in use simultaneously?

A: Smart charging works by setting a maximum power budget for the entire charger network. The CPMS continuously monitors the total load being drawn across all active charging sessions and allocates power dynamically so that the sum never exceeds the available capacity. If ten chargers are active and the budget allows for 70 kW total, each charger draws 7 kW. If fifteen chargers become active, each draws approximately 4.7 kW. Vehicles charge more slowly, but the building's electrical supply is never breached. This is why OCPP compliance and a capable CPMS are prerequisites for any installation where multiple chargers may run simultaneously.

Q: What should a building manager ask for when specifying EV charging infrastructure in a new development?

A: At minimum: OCPP-compliant chargers (specify OCPP 1.6J or 2.0.1), Cat6 Ethernet cabling to each charger location, a dedicated VLAN for the EV charging network, electrical distribution boards sized for eventual 100% EV charging capacity (not just the NCC minimum), and a CPMS with load management, session metering, and billing capabilities. Ask the electrical engineer to confirm the switchboard design supports the full future load, not just the initial installation.

How Pickle Can Help

Pickle provides the network infrastructure that managed OCPP EV charging systems depend on. For new commercial developments and retrofit projects across Australia, our team designs and installs the Cat6 cabling to charger locations, configures dedicated VLANs for EV charging networks, supplies and configures PoE switching for car park distribution points, and ensures reliable internet connectivity to support cloud CPMS platforms.

We work with developers, building managers, and EV charging operators to ensure the network side of an EV charging project is designed correctly from the outset — not retrofitted as an afterthought when the first charger goes offline.

To discuss EV charging network infrastructure for your development or building, contact the Pickle team on 1300 688 588 or at [email protected].

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