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Planning EV Charging at an Ohio Business Site

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The short answer

Plan EV charging around your electrical service, not the chargers. Level 2 chargers (roughly 7–19 kW per port) suit workplaces, hotels and other places where cars park for hours; DC fast chargers (50–350 kW) suit short stops and usually require a service upgrade and careful management of demand charges. Load-managed chargers let you install more ports on the service you have — the 2023 National Electrical Code allows feeders to be sized to an energy management system's limit. The federal 30C charger credit ended for property placed in service after June 30, 2026, and we couldn't verify any active business charger or make-ready incentive from Ohio's investor-owned utilities, so ask yours before you design.

This page covers site infrastructure for workplace and customer charging. For managing the demand of an electric vehicle fleet, see EV fleet charging and electricity demand. For how demand is billed, see demand charges explained; for using a battery to buffer fast chargers, see energy storage for Ohio businesses.

Level 2 vs DC fast charging

Level 1 Level 2 DC fast
Power per port About 1 kW About 7–19 kW About 50–350 kW
Supply 120 V AC 208–240 V AC 400–1,000 V DC output
Range added per hour About 2–5 miles About 10–20 miles About 180–240 miles
Best fit Long-dwell employee parking where cars sit all day Workplaces, hotels, multifamily, retail with longer visits Highway sites, convenience and quick-service retail, short-dwell stops
Electrical impact Minimal Moderate; often fits existing service with load management Large; usually needs new or upgraded service and transformer

Match charger speed to how long cars stay. An employee parked for eight hours doesn't need more than a Level 2 port; a customer stopping for 20 minutes won't get much from one.

Step 1: Check your electrical capacity

  • Service and panel ratings. Find your service size and the spare capacity in the panel that would feed chargers.
  • Actual load. Twelve months of 15-minute interval data shows your real peak demand compared with your service rating — often a more useful number than the connected load on paper.
  • Transformer. The utility's transformer may limit what you can add even if your service has room.
  • Distances and trenching. Conduit runs from the electrical room to parking spaces are often the biggest installation cost.
  • Future ports. Installing conduit for more spaces now costs far less than trenching again later.

Step 2: Talk to the utility early

Contact your utility's new-service or business-connections team before you finalize the design, especially for DC fast charging. Ask:

  • Whether the existing transformer and service can carry the added load, and the lead time for any upgrade.
  • How the cost of new facilities will be split. Under Ohio Administrative Code 4901:1-9-07, for nonresidential line extensions the utility generally pays 60% of the cost and the customer the remainder, excluding premium-service costs.
  • Whether charging should go on a separate meter and which rate schedule would apply.
  • Whether any EV-specific program currently exists. The federal Alternative Fuels Data Center listed no current AEP Ohio incentives when we checked, and we couldn't confirm active business make-ready programs at Duke Energy Ohio, AES Ohio or the FirstEnergy utilities.

Step 3: Size with load management

A charger is treated as a continuous load in electrical calculations unless its output is limited. The 2023 NEC (Section 625.42, with an energy management system under Article 750) allows the feeder and service to be sized to the maximum load the management system permits, rather than every charger at full power. Confirm which code edition your local building department enforces.

Example (illustrative): 10 Level 2 ports at about 7 kW each would draw 70 kW if all ran at full power. With power-sharing capped at 35 kW, each car gets about 3.5 kW when all 10 are charging — roughly 28 kWh over an eight-hour workday — and more when fewer cars are plugged in. The service sees a 35 kW maximum, not 70.

Step 4: Understand demand charges and the capacity tag

Demand charges. On a demand-billed schedule, a single 15-minute interval of full-power fast charging can set your monthly peak.

Illustrative example: a retail site pays an assumed $10 per kW-month in demand charges and installs one 150 kW DC fast charger. If a full-power session overlaps the store's existing peak, demand rises by up to 150 kW, adding up to $1,500 that month. If the charger delivers 3,000 kWh in the month, that's up to $0.50 per kWh in demand cost alone, before any energy charges. Power caps, scheduling and battery buffering are the usual fixes — see lowering peak demand charges.

Capacity tag. Charging during PJM's summer peak hours — hot weekday afternoons — adds to your capacity tag, which costs about $120 per kW a year at 2026/27 prices. Workplace charging that happens mostly in the morning adds less than afternoon customer charging. Setting chargers to throttle on PJM peak-alert days limits the effect; see capacity tags explained.

Step 5: Incentives and funding in 2026

  • Federal 30C credit: ended for property placed in service after June 30, 2026.
  • NEVI highway charging: in April 2026, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced $51 million in federal NEVI funding for 64 fast-charging sites along interstate corridors, each with at least four 150 kW ports, with construction expected to begin in early 2027. If your business is on a designated corridor, watch DriveOhio for future rounds.
  • Utility programs: none verified for business chargers as of September 2026.
  • Depreciation: 100% first-year bonus depreciation for eligible property acquired after January 19, 2025.

Confirm any tax treatment with a tax adviser.

Operating decisions to make up front

  • Who can charge, and whether employees, customers or the public pay.
  • Pricing and idle fees that keep ports available, if you charge for use.
  • Networked vs non-networked chargers. Networked units allow power-sharing, payment, session data and remote diagnostics; that session data is also what you need to manage demand.
  • Maintenance and uptime. Decide who responds when a charger fails, and how quickly.

FAQ

How much power does a workplace EV charger use?

A Level 2 port typically draws about 7–19 kW, depending on the charger and the vehicle. Load-management software can cap the total across all ports.

Will EV chargers raise my demand charges?

They can, especially DC fast chargers. Power caps, charging schedules and battery buffering keep charging from setting new monthly peaks.

Is the federal 30C charger tax credit still available?

No. It ended for property placed in service after June 30, 2026.

Do Ohio utilities pay for EV charger make-ready work?

We couldn't verify any active business make-ready program at Ohio's investor-owned utilities as of September 2026. Line-extension costs are shared under Ohio's rules, with the utility generally covering 60% for nonresidential extensions.

Sources

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