EV charging specialist SWTCH Energy has launched a product to dynamically adjust energy being used by EV chargers installed in multi-tenant buildings, based on the building’s real-time energy consumption. SWTCH Control has been piloted in a number of multi-tenant buildings across North America. The product allows owners of multi-tenant buildings, including older buildings, to install and manage up to 10x more EV chargers without the need for a costly infrastructure investment.

EV charging at multi-residential buildings is a challenge that is growing as states including California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, and New York propose EV charging readiness mandates at new multi-residential buildings. Canadian provinces including British Columbia and Quebec have already enacted EV charging readiness regulations, and others like Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia are in the process of evaluating building regulations as Canada aims to reach its goal of all new vehicle sales being EVs by 2035.

SWTCH Control is an intelligent load management system that monitors energy use in multi-residential buildings and allocates charging to periods of lower demand. Offering real-time awareness, SWTCH Control automatically adjusts on-site charger output based on tenant energy usage spikes to ensure: the electrical capacity of the building is never exceeded; all electric vehicles are fully charged by the morning – utilising periods of lower demand throughout the night; building owners and managers can maximise the number of chargers that can be installed in their buildings safely and efficiently.

The software continuously monitors the chargers, providing 24/7 technical support to ensure any hardware issues are promptly resolved.

“More than one-third of all North Americans live in multi-tenant properties, and most still can’t charge at home. This bottleneck is only going to get tighter as more people choose to drive EVs,” said Carter Li, CEO of SWTCH. “We’re excited to demonstrate how SWTCH Control tackles the main challenge to retrofitting existing multi-tenant properties for EV charging: electrical capacity. Our solution provides unmatched visibility into building electrical loads and available capacity, and early adopters have been able to instantly expand their charging options and/or make EV charging possible for the first time.”

“Utilising SWTCH Control to execute our plan to install and manage EV chargers at Skyline’s properties has been a seamless experience,” said Rob Stein, President, Skyline Energy. “We’re future-proofing our buildings to benefit our tenants and incorporate clean energy alternatives that reduce our carbon footprint. SWTCH’s software takes the electrical load management off our hands while providing a solution that makes financial sense.”

“Providing ample EV charging for our residents, tenants, and customers is only going to become more important in our fast-changing markets, and SWTCH Control has been key to supporting our efforts in this space at many of our latest projects, be it in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Vancouver,” said Duncan Wlodarczak at Onni Group, an international all asset class real estate developer with projects across North America.

“We’ve been able to install the initial chargers to meet current demand, but more importantly we feel confident in our ability to manage adding additional chargers in the near future as the US and Canada continue to break records for EV adoption and EV-readiness.”