EV chargers for offices and office buildings

Why an office building needs chargers

• An advantage when leasing space: tenants increasingly ask about charging already during negotiations, and companies with electric fleets choose buildings where their cars can charge on site.
• An employee benefit: charging at work is a real recruitment argument — especially for people who live in apartment blocks without their own charger.
• Building certification: charging points earn credits in green building rating systems such as BREEAM and LEED.
• A legal obligation: since 1 January 2025, a non-residential building in Poland with more than 20 parking spaces should have at least one charging point and cable ducting for a point at every fifth space.

Different groups, different rules

The foundation is a system that distinguishes between users and gives each group its own permissions and tariffs. With Domena Power, it looks like this:

• Tenants and their employees — permanent access to selected chargers or garage zones, with sessions assigned to the tenant company and billed by consumption.
• The owner’s or property manager’s employees — free access as a benefit, or paid access at the company rate.
• Company fleets — sessions assigned to the driver and vehicle, with cost reports ready for bookkeeping.
• Visitors — time-limited access in the app, with a separate price list and no impact on tenant billing.

How many chargers and what power

An employee’s car usually stays at the office for 8–9 hours, so 7.4–11 kW AC chargers are enough. Over a working day, they top up the range used over several days of commuting. Fast DC chargers make sense mainly for fleets that need to charge between runs.

It is worth planning the number of points in stages: a few chargers to start with, and the installation and cable ducting prepared for the target number. Dynamic load management (load balancing) shares the available power among the cars that are charging and takes the building’s own consumption into account — air conditioning, lifts, server rooms. As a result, even a dozen or more points usually fit on the existing connection, without an expensive capacity upgrade.

We confirm the number of points and the available power after analysing the grid connection and installation of the specific building.

More cars than chargers: rotating spaces

At an office there are usually more electric cars than chargers. To stop one fully charged car from blocking a point all day, it is worth setting simple rules in the car park regulations: e.g. moving the car once charging has finished. The app shows users the session status, so they know when the car is ready, and the property manager can see charger utilisation over time in the panel and plan further points on that basis.

Billing and recharging costs to tenants

Chargers in an office building’s garage are usually supplied from the building’s meter. Without a billing system, the energy cost goes into the service charges and all tenants pay for it — including those without electric cars.

Chargers with MID meters measure the energy of each session, and the system assigns it to the tenant. At the end of the period, the property manager receives a statement of consumption and costs per tenant, ready for re-invoicing — without manual meter readings. The property manager sets the rate: it can reflect the building’s energy cost or include a margin for providing the infrastructure.

How charging is re-invoiced and how VAT is accounted for depends on the lease agreements and the billing model — it is worth confirming this with your accounts department.

Charging as an employee benefit

A company can offer employees charging free of charge or at a preferential rate. The system still meters every session, so the employer knows how much the benefit costs and who uses it. The rules are easy to change in the panel — e.g. setting an energy limit, or free charging for company cars only.

Free charging of an employee’s private car may have tax implications. It is worth consulting the settlement method with your accounts department or a tax adviser.

Access via the app or an RFID card

Users start charging in the app, and the property manager grants and revokes permissions in the panel — when a tenant moves out or an employee leaves, access expires immediately, with no cards to recover. RFID cards are not required, but the system supports them; there are no payment terminals to maintain. The system works as a closed model: only authorised users can charge.

How much the billing system costs

The Domena Power subscription is 30 zł net per month for the first charger in a group and 10 zł net for each additional one. With 10 chargers, that is 120 zł net per month, or 12 zł net per point. The first M2M SIM card — useful in underground garages without Wi‑Fi coverage — is included. We take no commission on energy sales, so all charging fees stay with the building.

Formalities: fire safety and UDT

• Fire safety: for chargers in an underground garage, the installation design is usually approved by a certified fire-safety expert — often with chargers disconnected by a signal from the fire alarm system.
• UDT: if charging is a paid service for tenants, employees or visitors, the station is subject to inspection by UDT (Poland’s Office of Technical Inspection) — even when it is not publicly accessible.
• EIPA: only publicly accessible stations are registered in EIPA (Poland’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Register). Chargers for tenants and employees operating as a closed system are not subject to this obligation.

The scope of formalities depends on the building and how the chargers are made available. We confirm it after analysing the specific installation and handle it as part of the rollout.

What the rollout looks like

If the building already has chargers that support the OCPP protocol, they usually do not need to be replaced — we connect them to the system regardless of the manufacturer.

• A conversation about the number of spaces, user groups and billing method.
• Power analysis, installation assessment and design, with fire-safety approvals.
• Installation of chargers with load management, and configuration of tenants, access rights and tariffs.
• Session billing, re-invoicing reports, servicing and expansion with additional points.