Elocity launched Canada’s largest multi-residential EV charging

An impressive 1212 Elocity-powered smart chargers installed at Richmond Centre, a landmark mixed-use development in British Columbia, collectively manage approximately 8 MW of EV load—enough to power 3000–4000 homes. Utilizing AI-driven demand response and off-peak energy optimization, the intelligent load management strategy driven by Elocity’s HIEV platform ensures every resident can charge reliably overnight. All while cutting capital expenditures by nearly 50% and reducing operational costs. Richmond Centre and Elocity are creating a future-proof model for sustainable urban living, providing EV charging access to every residential parking stall, all without costly transformer or grid reinforcements. A lot of people are certainly getting a charge out of that!   

Richmond Centre, a landmark mixed-use development in British Columbia, set out to create a future-proof model for sustainable urban living by providing EV charging access to each residential stall across its entire six football field-sized parkade.

Anyone looking to offer EV charging access on this kind of scale was going to face challenges, but Richmond Centre and Elocity ambitions were even loftier than that. The project’s mission extended beyond simply installing infrastructure. They aimed to eliminate barriers to EV adoption, accelerate decarbonization and contribute to Canada’s target of 100% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, all while strengthening grid resilience and energy sustainability.

To that end, a 1:4 intelligent load management strategy, driven by Elocity’s HIEV platform, ensures every resident can charge reliably overnight while cutting capital expenditures by nearly 50%, dropping peak demand over 60%, and reducing operational costs through AI-driven demand response and off-peak energy optimization. Elocity offers end-to-end technology solutions—including smart chargers, advanced energy and load management, and EV charging management software—that enable EV drivers, chargers and the grid to interact intelligently. By adopting this approach, the team was able to flip the challenge on its head, transforming EV infrastructure into a grid-friendly scalable asset rather than a burden.

Elocity developed the technology that makes this possible through collaborations with Toronto Metropolitan University Centennial College Simon Fraser University and testing with utilities including Toronto Hydro London Hydro and Burlington Hydro as well as major builders such as Tridel. These efforts refined a precise scalable platform that allows each 7.4 kW charger to operate without the need for costly transformer or grid upgrades. The dynamic system manages a total load of 8 MW, the equivalent of powering 3000–4000 homes, while ensuring reliable charging for over 1000 EV drivers every day.

Bringing this technology from the drawing board to multi-football-field scale reality took strategic collaboration, bringing together federal and municipal governments, Canadian cleantech innovators, developers, utilities and contractors with each playing a critical role in executing Canada’s largest multi-residential EV charging project.

Shape Properties led as the project developer, integrating EV infrastructure seamlessly into Richmond Centre’s master-planned community and ensuring every stall was EV-ready while Axiom Builders coordinated site construction and workflow optimization to meet the project’s accelerated nine-month timeline and property owner Cadillac Fairview supported sustainability goals and long-term operational integration.

The City of Richmond offered municipal leadership and alignment with city-wide electrification and climate goals, while National Resources Canada provided federal program support enabling funding and acceleration of clean mobility adoption.

Elocity Technologies served as the end-to-end technology provider, supplying Canadian-made OCPP-certified smart chargers AI-driven HIEV energy management and EV charging management software.

Under this team, the project advanced from initial system design to electrical system installation and commissioning (managed by Ozz Electric and Enlightened Building Technologies) to live operation in just nine months, proving that Canadian cleantech and coordinated partnerships can accelerate the deployment of sustainable scalable EV infrastructure. With Elocity providing multi-year 24/7 operational support for unit owners and EV drivers, Richmond Centre Benchmarking against CleanBC’s MURB electrification frameworks and global best practices, Richmond Centre demonstrated that intelligent energy management can, on top of cutting capital expenditures and operating costs, achieve GHG reductions and performance metrics well above conventional electrification projects.

Using EPA and Government of Canada calculators on full operational scale, the team expects the project’s annual environmental impact to offset 292,000 gallons of gasoline (that’s 6.5 million vehicle miles worth), thousands of tonnes of CO₂ emissions, and the equivalent GHGs of half a million trash bags of waste or millions of pounds of coal burned.

Now, with Elocity’s multi-year support and proven demand response capabilities, Richmond Centre stands as a replicable model for developers, utilities and municipalities looking to accelerate EV adoption, boost grid resilience, and embrace sustainable community design. It’s a moving story and one we’re going to be hearing a lot.