Commercial Energy has been a tenant at Airport Corporate Centre (ACC) since 2008 and they recently connected us with one of their trusted partners, PowerFlex, a San Diego based company that has been installing EV charging solutions throughout California.  PowerFlex met with Cranbrook’s property management team and presented a plan to install a total of thirty-six (36) EV charging stations at ACC that would be fully paid for by state and local project funds.  The estimated cost for this project was about $255,000, which would be covered through these available funds.  EV charging is a nice thing to have at a property in the Bay Area where electric cars are very popular, so after considerable project discussions, we gave the go ahead for PowerFlex to begin construction.

As soon as PowerFlex was given the go-ahead, they hired a local contractor, DC Electric to perform the EV charging stations installation and the necessary interior electrical work to support the charging stations.  The exterior (parking lot) work of charger installation, trenching, underground conduit runs, and sub-panel work was completed early this year, while the interior work was being planned.  PowerFlex and DC electric in conjunction with Team Cranbrook personnel worked together to create a well-defined scope of work to tackle the interior work.  In the project review stage, some areas of concern were noted, and the team worked together on mitigation steps to ensure a back-up plan was in place if something went awry.

One of the projects major concerns was the need to shut down power to the entire building for about six (6) hours so that DC Electric could install a new breaker and switchgear that would be able to monitor and supply the new EV charging stations.  This new breaker would allow the EV charging stations to be isolated from the main breaker of the building and would facilitate any future work to the EV stations to be completed without affecting power to the entire building.  Given the age of the building’s main breaker, we decided to have a replacement breaker on standby, in the event there were any issues during the de-energization/re-energization process.  PG&E linemen were on standby in the event that the breaker failed, and we would need to swap for the spare unit.  On the day of the interior work and connection, all work went smoothly, and there were no issues experienced.

The EV charging stations will branch off of our building’s main electrical supply, through a monitored switchgear, and Cranbrook has the ability to charge for using them although initially we have elected not to do so in order to build demand.  In the future, if Cranbrook decides to charge for the use of the stations, PowerFlex will send a quarterly check for our share of the fees.  In the meantime, PowerFlex makes money by receiving Low Carbon Fuel Standards credits when the charging systems are used, which they can sell on the open market.  It is very similar to the Cap-and-Trade System approach.  In order to use the EV systems, tenants will need to download the PowerFlex application to a smart phone.

Once the systems are fully operational, PowerFlex provides a two-year warranty on the installation and will be performing on-going quarterly maintenance.  This project has been a successful team effort that will allow ACC to provide a much-requested amenity that increases both the value and interest in the property.