Charging of electric cars in parking garages

There has been a huge increase in the number of electric cars over the last few years, as of the 1st of September 2019 a total of 247,565 electric cars were registered in Norway. There is a clear political incentive to facilitate the charging of electric cars in parking garages in Norway. This has resulted in a public inquiry regarding a proposed amendment to the Norwegian Planning and Building Act (Planning and Building Act, the Norwegian Act relating to owner-tenant sections and the Norwegian Housing Cooperatives Act). The inquiry proposes that housing cooperative owners be given the right to install chargers for electric cars. The inquiry has resulted in a consultation paper in which the uncertainties regarding fire safety during electric car charging in confined spaces were highlighted.

The study examined whether the charging of electric cars in parking garages results in unacceptable risk of fire and, if so, what sort of measures would be required to ensure acceptable risk levels.

One of the objectives of the study was to identify the required measures to ensure acceptable safety levels when parking and charging electric cars in parking garages.

This was done through the use of a comprehensive evaluation of the risk of fire in electric cars while charging, the risk of fire in electrical installations in parking garages during charging and also the layout of the parking garage and the possibility for active firefighting or extinguishing using sprinklers and water mist systems.

It also investigated the relevant measures that could be taken to prevent increased fire risk arising from the installation of charging points for electric cars.

Conclusions

Based on the findings from statistics and a literature review, there were no indications that charging of electric cars in parking garages would result in an increased probability of fire. The regulations regarding charging points for electric cars seem to be adequate for ensuring that the risk of fire arising due to the charging of electric cars in parking garages is acceptable. This requires that the charging points are in accordance with the regulations and that the recommendations from the car manufacturers and the producers of the charging points are followed. It is important to avoid the use of power sockets not intended for the charging of vehicles and also to avoid the use of extension leads. Based on this, the need for fixed water-based firefighting systems in parking garages is no higher for parking garages with the possibility of charging of electric cars than in other parking garages.

There are still unknown factors with regard to both the development of fire in parking garages in general and also regarding potential fire propagation to the battery pack specifically. More knowledge is needed in order to increase the accuracy of evaluations and recommendations.