I think it is wrong to legislate, "you must do this, you must do that." It is wrong to subsidize a favored industry, such as EV and EVSEs.
There are some regulations that are bureaucratic and void of sense, but others are very sensible and thoughtful. I think it is baseless and wrong to conclude that everything that comes from government regulations is bad. It seems wise to first study the ordinance (just three pages long) before arriving at sweeping conclusions. This particular is very thoughtful in general and very sound technically.
Here is a quote from the ordinance that explains the intent:
The Council finds that electric vehicles emit approximately 75% less carbon dioxide (CO2) than average vehicles. Pure battery electric vehicles do not emit tailpipe pollutants such as benzene and nitrogen oxide, which negatively impact city air quality and resident health. Providing for infrastructure to promote and support electric vehicle use will lead to improvement of the city’s air quality and reduce the city’s production of greenhouse gases.
Electric vehicles require chargers, or Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSEs). The vast majority of parking facilities are not currently being built to accommodate electric chargers. For many parking facilities built without EVSE-readiness, adding more than a handful of chargers will require expensive retrofits. Building parking facilities to be ready for electric vehicles incurs minimal additional costs while helping avoid expensive new wiring later. This legislation does not require installing EVSEs, but requires that the building have electrical capacity to add EVSEs to up to 20% of newly created parking stalls as needed.
When left to government you get arbitrary values which only serve to displease everyone. 3.1 kW? Really? Thats the kind of number which gets invented in committee where those who do not have to live by it convince themselves they are now educated and knowledgeable on the subject and "Thats all you need! Gee that was easy!"
The displeasure with regards to 3.1kW is due to misunderstanding of what it means.
It is not intended as a size of
future individual feed, it is intended only for sizing the
future panel and its feed. This is consistent with how panels are routinely sized based on utilization factor for the equipment that is being fed from such panel. Since all equipment connected to the panel does not need 100 percent of power all the time, the utilization factor is used to estimate total demand. In this case the utilization factor is 0.3 - according to the ordinance each of the 20% of parking spaces have to be equipped with the raceway that provides minimum supply of 11.5 kVA (this is enough to fully feed Tesla Model S with a single 10kW charger). Assuming 0.8 power factor, 11.5kVA yields 9.2kW. The total power requirement for 10 parking spaces, for example, would be 10 x 9.2 x 0.3 = 30.7kW or 30.7 / 10 =3.1 kW per parking space.
It is clear that this particular committee "invention" is well thought and technically sound, not arbitrary as you seem to suggest.
And 20% of the space in new construction parking? That sounds excessive. Would be far better to make sure the operators of parking facilities can make a profit installing EVSEs than to ram them down their throats.
I think that you are unfortunately totally misunderstanding this ordinance.
It does not require anybody to install EVSE, power panel or wiring. It only requires dedicated space for
future panel and installed conduit for
future wiring. So upfront expense is really marginal, but very smart. In future, when the need arises, the owner of the parking lot can install the panel, wiring and EVSE. It is totally up to the owner of the parking lot how to monetize this added service (at some time in the future) - either by charging for installation, charging for use of the EVSE, or counting on additional business that installed EVSE can potentially bring.
All of the above is clearly spelled out in this concise, well written ordinance. You can see it for yourself, just click the link in the original post and read through the ordinance - it is only three pages long. (
Int. No 1176)
