Mammoth parking lot development covers roughly six football fields in area and supports shoppers and multi-unit residential building tenants

Representatives from Richmond Centre say it is now the site of one of the largest single-location, multi-residential charging deployments in North America.

The 12-tower condo complex surrounding the Richmond Centre shopping mall, located in Richmond B.C., this week unveiled 1,212 smart EV chargers — one for each residential parking space.

“Richmond Centre is now home to one of Canada’s most comprehensive EV charging infrastructure[s], with every residential stall equipped with a charger at no cost to homeowners, made possible through support from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan),” says Dan Wilson, executive vice president of residential at Shape Properties, in a press release.

Cadillac Fairview is the property owner for the site, while Shape Properties is the project developer.

Elocity Technologies, a Canadian charging technology company, provided the EV chargers and smart management technology.

“This project demonstrates the power of intelligent, made-in-Canada technology in shaping the global EV landscape,” adds Elocity founder and CEO, Sanjeev Singh.

Made-in-Canada solution

One of the distinctive features of the Richmond Centre EV chargers project is its all-Canadian DNA.

By securing federal government funding to utilizing Canadian technology, project exhibits a national collaboration for a large-scale EV charging project.

As well, the use of smart technology to balance the load of 1,212 EV chargers is a proof of engineering to act as a blueprint for other large-scale projects.

To ensure operability and reliability, Elocity provided its AI-based energy management software platform to manage charging station usage with the electrical demands of the site.

The software can also load-shift EV charging to off-peak times, which reduces the load burden for the building and the cost of charging for the customer.

EV chargers benefit community

By supporting EV adoption through providing multi-unit residential building (MURB) charging, wider community benefits may occur.

“There is the potential to replace over 13 million miles of gasoline vehicle travel with 584,677 gallons of fuel saved,” reads the project press release.

“The GHG reductions approximate avoiding the methane associated with half a million trash bags in landfill and millions of pounds of coal being burned.”

There are over 2,000 residential units at Richmond Centre in 12 towers spanning 12 acres.

The parkade is a two-level design providing spaces for approximately 4,000 vehicles including all residential and commercial use spaces.

The entire development is scheduled for completion in 2025.