What Does an Electrical Planning Report Include?
An EPR details your building's current electrical capacity, existing peak demand, spare capacity, and future demand estimates for EV charging and heat pumps. It provides recommendations to manage demand but does not automatically require expensive upgrades.
What an EPR includes by law and guidance
The provincial government and BC Hydro have established clear guidelines for what must be included in an Electrical Planning Report. The goal is to give strata councils a complete, plain-language overview of their building's electrical health.
A compliant EPR must cover the following five core areas:
1. Current electrical capacity
The total amount of power your building's main electrical service and distribution panels were designed to handle.
2. Peak demand
The maximum amount of power your building actually uses during its busiest times (usually cold winter evenings).
3. Spare capacity
The difference between your total capacity and your peak demand. This is how much "room" you have left for new loads.
4. Future demand
An estimate of how much extra power will be needed to support future upgrades, specifically focusing on EV charging and heat pumps.
5. Recommendations
Strategies to manage or reduce electrical demand, such as using EV Energy Management Systems (EVEMS) to share power instead of upgrading the main service.
What an EPR does not include
Many strata councils worry that getting an EPR will force them into expensive construction projects. This is a misconception.
An EPR does not automatically require upgrades. It is simply an informational report. It may identify limitations in your building's capacity, but it does not compel the strata to fix them immediately unless safety issues are discovered.
Furthermore, an EPR is not a detailed engineering design. The B.C. government states clearly that an EPR cannot itself inform the installation of new electrical loads. It will not include permit-ready drawings, specific wire routings, or a final bill of materials for installing chargers.
What happens after the report is complete
Once the EPR is complete, it becomes a permanent record of the strata corporation. It must be kept and disclosed to prospective buyers on Form B.
From there, the strata council uses the report to make informed decisions. If the strata wants to proceed with installing EV chargers, the next logical step is to commission an EV Ready Plan. The EV Ready Plan takes the high-level data from the EPR and turns it into a specific, actionable, and costed design for the parking garage.
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Sources & References
- Province of BC: Electrical Planning Report Requirements
- BC Hydro: Strata EV Charging Guidance