EV chargers and electrification stall in Victorian apartments as owners face costs and strata rules
A North Melbourne apartment block has spent five years and about $10,000 on consultants without a costed electrification plan, as The Age reported that an expert review found strong interest in EV chargers and induction cooking across Victoria but barriers in strata rules and funding.
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Five years of fees, still no reliable cost
Residents Carla Campbell-Redl and Ying-Lan Dann want to electrify their 1960s low-rise brick block on Haines Street in North Melbourne, moving away from gas. Campbell-Redl, who chairs the Owners Corporation committee, told The Age that about $10,000 paid to five consultants in as many years has not yet yielded a solution. One of their biggest frustrations, she said, is being unable to get reliable technical advice to establish even an approximate cost for the complete electrification project. 1
Their best current estimate, as set out by The Age, is that each of the 33 units would need to contribute about $24,800, roughly $818,000 in total. The indicative breakdown includes a new network cable ($300,000), a potential substation ($100,000), cable trays in common areas ($75,000), wiring into each apartment ($100,000), hot water plumbing and metering ($198,000), nine hot water units ($36,000) and electrical cabling ($9,000). The committee stressed these figures are indicative only and exclude solar panels or batteries, and Campbell-Redl told the newspaper they still cannot establish a reliable overall project cost, particularly regarding electricity network and substation upgrades. 1
Strata rules in the frame
An expert review into the Owners Corporation Act, as reported by The Age, found there is strong interest from apartment owners across Victoria in installing electric car chargers and replacing gas stovetops with induction models, but that many sustainable upgrades failed to proceed because of the 75 per cent special resolution needed to approve changes to common property, and because projects stall unless an owners corporation has money in the bank. The review also noted solar uptake on Victorian homes has doubled since 2018 to over 30 per cent, occurring almost exclusively on detached houses, according to The Age. 1
The City of Melbourne has backed lowering sustainability upgrade resolutions to 50 per cent, and told the review the law should define what sustainability items, such as electric-vehicle charging, are. Lord Mayor Nick Reece told The Age that residents and owners corporations face a maze of costs, regulations and technical decisions when moving away from gas, while more than 80 per cent of Melbourne residents live in medium and high-density apartments. Australian Apartment Advocacy director Samantha Reece also backed a 50 per cent threshold for sustainability items only, and supports review recommendations including a strata commissioner to administer energy audit grants, according to The Age. Adam Promnitz of the Strata Owners Alliance, however, told the newspaper he is reluctant to support a carve-out, saying any reduction would need to apply where a financial gain can be shown. The Victorian government has supported all the expert panel's recommendations, with the first tranche of legislation to update the act, focused on lot owners in financial hardship, having passed. 1
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