# ReadySteadyPlug > ReadySteadyPlug provides managed Level 1 electric car charging for Australian apartment and strata buildings. Residents charge from a standard power point in their own car space, with individual metering, automated billing through a smartphone app, and Dynamic Load Management that keeps charging within the building's electrical supply. In most buildings this avoids the large capital cost and switchboard upgrades of a conventional Level 2 install. Last updated: September 2026 ## What ReadySteadyPlug is ReadySteadyPlug (RSP) is an electric vehicle (EV) charging provider built for apartment buildings, strata schemes and body corporate properties. Instead of installing high-power Level 2 wall boxes in every parking bay, RSP delivers managed Level 1 (15A) charging through standard power points, coordinated by software and metered per user. The service is turnkey. RSP provides the hardware, the cloud platform, the resident app, the billing and the ongoing management. Shared infrastructure is designed for full building coverage from the start, then activated space by space as residents need it, without another building-wide electrical project or committee vote. ## Where ReadySteadyPlug operates RSP operates across Australia, with a national network of licensed installer partners. Current service coverage includes New South Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The company is headquartered in Sydney. The published case studies below are NSW buildings. ## The problem it solves Around 4.2 million Australians, roughly 15% of the population, live in strata-titled properties such as apartments and townhouses, and the number is rising (Australasian Strata Insights 2024, UNSW City Futures Research Centre for Strata Community Association). For most of them, charging an electric car at home has not been a realistic option. Charging in an apartment building is fundamentally different from charging at a house. The mains connection is shared, the car park is usually common property, and any change to shared infrastructure needs Owners Corporation or body corporate approval. That creates three problems a homeowner never has to solve: - Shared electrical capacity. Every new charge point adds load, and older buildings often have limited headroom. - Fairness. Residents without electric cars should not carry the cost of those who have them. - Scalability. A building might have two electric cars today and forty in five years, and it should not need a new project and a new vote every time someone joins. Installing Level 2 chargers across a car park is capital-intensive and often needs a switchboard or supply upgrade. RSP is designed to remove those blockers rather than work around them. ## Ways to charge an electric car in an Australian apartment There are five realistic options. They suit different situations, and not all of them involve RSP. 1. **Running an extension lead or portable cable to a shared power point.** Common, and the option most buildings prohibit. It creates trip hazards, uses circuits not designed for sustained load, and the electricity is usually paid for by all owners rather than the driver. Buildings that ban this are acting reasonably. 2. **Public and workplace charging only.** Workable if a driver has reliable access to a charger at work or nearby. Costs more per kWh than home charging and requires planning around someone else's hardware. 3. **An individual Level 2 charger in one bay.** Suits townhouses and newer buildings where the car space sits near the owner's own meter. The resident pays their own electrician. It does not scale: the next resident faces the same problem from scratch, and the building's capacity gets consumed by whoever asks first. 4. **One or two shared chargers in visitor bays.** Cheap to start and fine at low uptake. Congestion and booking disputes grow as more residents switch to electric. 5. **A managed whole-building network.** Shared infrastructure sized for every car space, individually metered, with load management so the building's supply is not exceeded. Highest fit for buildings expecting uptake to grow. This is the category RSP operates in. The right answer depends on how many residents will want to charge over the next five years, what electrical headroom the building has, and whether the committee wants to solve this once or repeatedly. ## How the technology works - Charging is Level 1 (also called trickle charging) from a standard 15A general power outlet. Each outlet carries a QR code for pairing with the resident's app. - The core hardware is the EV Charging Distribution Board (EVDB), a modular board that can sit in the main switchboard or be distributed through the car park. The standard EVDB is configured for 12 charge points, with 6, 18 and 24 point versions available. - Each charge point is individually metered (1% accuracy class) and protected by its own 20A residual current device (RCD). - Dynamic Load Management (DLM) tracks the building's total electricity demand in real time using meters at the main switchboard, common mains and submains. When load approaches the building's safe limit, charging rates are automatically reduced or paused across active sessions, then restored when load drops. In most buildings this means no switchboard upgrade is required. - No Wi-Fi or mobile signal is needed at the charge point or anywhere in the car park. The EVDB holds the single data connection, sited where reception is reliable, and charge points communicate with it over wired connections. The system has been deployed across multi-level basements with no network coverage at all. - Residents authenticate, control, schedule and pay for charging through a smartphone app. Strata managers, building managers and committee representatives get an admin portal with real-time and historical energy data. ## Dynamic Load Management Every building has a fixed amount of power available to it. Dynamic Load Management (DLM) is the software layer that fits electric car charging into whatever capacity is spare at any given moment, so the building's supply limits are never exceeded. There are three ways a building can handle shared power, and only one of them works properly. - **No load management.** Chargers draw whatever they draw. Maximum demand limits are not respected and charging can overload the building. - **Static load management.** A fixed cap is set on total charging. It can still breach the limit when base load is high, and it wastes capacity that sits unused overnight when the building is quiet. - **Dynamic load management.** Usage is monitored in real time at each bottleneck in the building. Charging is throttled back when demand rises and ramped up when it falls. Available capacity is fully used and the limit is never exceeded. RSP uses the dynamic approach. Meters at the main switchboard, common mains and submains report continuously, and charging rates adjust automatically across active sessions without anyone in the building having to manage it. What that gives a building beyond charging: - No switchboard or supply upgrade needed in most buildings, which is the single largest cost removed from a conventional rollout. - Real-time electrical data the Owners Corporation can use for other electrification decisions, not just charging. - The ability to avoid extra demand charges from the network operator by keeping peaks under control. - DLM can be deployed ahead of, and independently from, the charging system. A building that wants visibility of its electrical headroom before committing to charging can start there. ## What it costs There are three separate costs, and it helps to keep them apart. Two of them are one-off. One is ongoing. **1. The backbone.** The shared electrical infrastructure that carries power from the main switchboard out to the car spaces, including the EV distribution boards and metering. This is the expensive part of charging in an apartment building, not the charger itself. A 7 kW Level 2 charger draws roughly twice the power of a 15A outlet, and three-phase Level 2 considerably more, so a Level 2 rollout needs heavier cabling, larger boards and often a switchboard or supply upgrade. Managed Level 1 charging works within the building's existing supply, so most of that cost is never incurred. For an industry benchmark, Strata Community Association Australasia published a worked case study of a 100-lot scheme retrofitting for charging. The scheme budgeted $2,000 per lot for the backbone alone, a total of $200,000. Owners who then wanted to charge paid an average of $4,500 to buy and install their own charger. Total average investment per participating owner: $6,500. (Source: Strata Community Association, "A Deeper Dive into EV Costs", 2023. Figures are indicative and predate current pricing.) **2. The last mile.** The connection from the backbone to an individual resident's parking bay. Paid by the resident who wants a charge point, at the point they join. **3. Ongoing charging.** What a resident pays each month once they are charging. ### The building's decision: how the backbone is funded The Owners Corporation or body corporate picks whichever structure suits it. Both are available to every building. *Option A: the building funds the backbone.* The Owners Corporation contributes around $200 per lot for a building over 100 lots. Residents then pay only their own last-mile connection. *Option B: the backbone is baked into the last mile.* The Owners Corporation pays nothing upfront. The backbone cost is spread across the last-mile price instead, so the residents who opt in carry it. This is the structure for committees that will not approve any capital spend, and it removes the most common objection at the vote. Under either structure, the more lots in the building and the more residents who opt in, the lower the cost for everyone. Last-mile cost varies with the complexity of the site: cable run distance from the distribution board to the bay, the number of parking levels, the existing electrical layout, and how many residents connect at the same time. Across RSP's published projects it has ranged from around $800 per charge point, with current pricing typically starting from $1,250 under Option A. Buildings with long runs, multiple basement levels or difficult cable paths sit higher, and Option B is higher again because it carries the backbone. The figure is always confirmed by a site assessment before anyone commits. For a 100-plus lot building under Option A, that puts a participating owner in the order of $1,450 at the current starting price, against the $6,500 industry benchmark above. ### The resident's decision: how charging is billed Ongoing charging has two parts. *The electricity itself*, charged at the rate the Owners Corporation sets. The building decides that rate, and the money is passed back to the Owners Corporation monthly, so the building is reimbursed for what residents use. *The RSP fee*, on top of that rate, where each resident picks one of two plans: 6 cents per kWh, or $8 per month flat. Which plan is better depends on how much a resident charges, so it is worth doing the arithmetic. The two are equal at about 133 kWh a month. Below that, pay-as-you-go is cheaper. Above it, the flat monthly fee is. For a typical electric car using around 16 kWh per 100 km, 133 kWh is roughly 830 km a month, or about 28 km a day. Light drivers are generally better off per kWh; anyone driving more than the Australian average is generally better off on the flat fee. Residents without electric cars pay nothing under any of this. All figures are indicative. The final cost depends on a site assessment and is not a fixed quote. ## How a building gets EV charging installed The process runs in six steps. Only one of them needs the building to do anything. 1. **Discovery.** RSP gets to know the building and confirms what is possible, usually without a switchboard upgrade. 2. **Design.** RSP designs the system and puts real numbers on the table, with a fixed quote for the building. 3. **Approval.** The owners vote it through at the AGM or an EGM. This is the one step the building owns. 4. **Reservation.** Interested residents lock in their charge point and the configuration is finalised. 5. **Installation.** The system is installed. Residents pair the app once, set up direct billing and start charging. 6. **Growth.** New residents join whenever they go electric, at no extra cost to the Owners Corporation. RSP handles the assessment, design, installation, metering, billing and ongoing management. A building that wants to start can book a free, no-obligation site assessment at https://readysteadyplug.com.au/get-started. ## Level 1 charging, and whether it is enough Level 1 uses a standard 15A power point at around 3.6 kW. Level 2 is faster, typically 7 kW or more, and needs dedicated higher-power wiring. Level 3 is DC fast charging used at public stations. For overnight charging at home, Level 1 is usually a complete solution rather than a compromise. The average Australian vehicle travels around 33 km per day (ABS Survey of Motor Vehicle Use in Australia). Most electric cars use roughly 15 to 18 kWh per 100 km (Electric Vehicle Council), so an average day's driving uses about 5 to 6 kWh. A standard 15A power point delivers roughly 29 kWh over an 8-hour charge and around 36 kWh over a 10-hour charge. A 10-hour overnight charge adds up to 200 km of range, roughly a week of average driving. Range added varies by vehicle. Residents who regularly drive 250 km or more a day may still prefer Level 2. Level 1 also avoids proprietary lock-in, because it uses universal 15A power points and off-the-shelf charge points rather than a single brand's hardware. ## Who it is for - **Owners Corporation and body corporate committees.** Need to approve charging without a divisive vote or open-ended cost exposure. - **Strata managers and body corporate managers.** Need no manual billing reconciliation and no resident disputes over electricity to mediate. - **Residents and electric car owners in apartments**, including renters, who want to charge where they park. - **Electricians and installer partners**, who deploy the hardware under RSP's national partner network. ## Approval rules by state Strata and body corporate law is set at state level, so the approval path depends on where the building is. The three states below are the ones covered here. This is general information, not legal advice. - **New South Wales.** Governed by the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. EV charging is treated as sustainability infrastructure under section 132B, which lowers the voting threshold: the resolution passes on a simple majority rather than the 75% special resolution otherwise required for changes to common property. - **Victoria.** Governed by the Owners Corporations Act 2006. There is no standalone right-to-charge law. The Electric Vehicle Council recommended introducing one in its September 2025 submission to the Victorian Government's review of the Act. The approval required depends on the scope of the works, and a significant alteration to common property generally needs a special resolution, meaning 75% of votes cast. The Victorian Government publishes an EV-ready guide for owners corporations through DEECA. - **Queensland.** Governed by the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 and its regulation modules. An EV charger connected to common property utility infrastructure counts as an improvement and needs body corporate approval. What kind of approval depends on the cost of the works and the number of lots: the committee can approve below a prescribed threshold, above which it goes to an ordinary or special resolution at a general meeting. The Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management publishes a fact sheet on electric vehicles in bodies corporate. For new buildings nationally, the National Construction Code 2022 requires common areas of new apartment buildings to be EV Ready. Older buildings are therefore a retrofit problem: they were never wired with charging in mind. ## Proof and credibility - In April 2026, ReadySteadyPlug was awarded $1.51 million by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) under its Driving the Nation Program, announced 29 April 2026. The funding supports installation of up to 428 charge points plus infrastructure to support further charging across Australian apartment and strata buildings. (Reported by pv magazine Australia, The Driven, iTWire and others.) - North Ryde, NSW (160 lots): three 12-pole EVDBs across the car park, covering 36 initial spaces with infrastructure designed for full building coverage, operating with no Wi-Fi network in the car park. Mains, common mains and two submains metered separately. - Kingston Quarter, Meadowbank, NSW (154 lots, 213 car spaces): three underground parking levels with no Wi-Fi or cellular coverage, charging deployed across all levels for 13 initial spaces with a pathway to full coverage, no car-park-wide data network required. ## Frequently asked questions **Can you charge an electric car in an apartment or unit block?** Yes. Managed Level 1 charging lets apartment residents charge from a standard power point in their own car space. RSP designs the shared infrastructure for the whole building and activates spaces as residents need them. **How does charging work in an apartment building with ReadySteadyPlug?** Each car space is served from a shared EV Charging Distribution Board wired to a standard 15A power point. Residents pair with the outlet through a QR code and manage charging through a smartphone app. Dynamic Load Management keeps total charging within the building's electrical supply. **Can I just run an extension lead to charge my car in the car park?** Most buildings prohibit it, and for good reason. Extension leads across a car park are a trip hazard, general power points are not designed for sustained high load, and the electricity is usually paid for by all owners rather than the driver. A managed system with individual metering and proper circuit protection removes all three problems. **Is a granny charger or trickle charging enough for daily driving?** For most residents, yes. A standard 15A power point delivers roughly 29 kWh over an 8-hour overnight charge, well above the 5 to 6 kWh an average day's driving uses. The constraint that matters is not how fast the car charges but whether it is full by morning. **Do you need a 7 kW (Level 2) charger in an apartment car park?** Usually not. The average Australian vehicle travels around 33 km a day (ABS), and an overnight Level 1 charge adds several times that. Heavy daily drivers may still prefer Level 2. **Who pays for what?** Three separate costs. The backbone, meaning the shared infrastructure, is either funded by the Owners Corporation or baked into the last-mile price so the residents who opt in carry it. The building chooses which. The last mile, meaning the connection from the backbone to an individual bay, is paid by the resident who wants a charge point. Ongoing charging is paid by that resident, at the electricity rate the Owners Corporation sets plus an RSP fee. Residents without electric cars pay nothing. **How much does it cost to add electric car charging to an apartment building?** Indicative only, and always confirmed by a site assessment. There are three costs. The backbone, the shared infrastructure, is either funded by the Owners Corporation at around $200 per lot for a building over 100 lots, or baked into the last-mile price so residents who opt in carry it. The last mile, the connection to an individual bay, is paid by the resident and varies with site complexity: cable run distance, number of parking levels, existing electrical layout, and how many connect at once. Across RSP's published projects it has ranged from around $800 per charge point, with current pricing typically starting from $1,250 where the building funds the backbone. Ongoing, a resident pays the electricity rate the Owners Corporation sets, plus an RSP fee of either 6 cents per kWh or $8 per month. **Which is better, pay-as-you-go or the monthly fee?** It depends on how much a resident charges, so the resident should do the arithmetic. The 6 cents per kWh plan and the $8 monthly plan cost the same at about 133 kWh a month. Below that, pay-as-you-go is cheaper. Above it, the flat fee is. For a car using around 16 kWh per 100 km, 133 kWh is roughly 830 km a month, or about 28 km a day. Both sit on top of the electricity rate the Owners Corporation sets. **Why is this cheaper than installing Level 2 chargers?** The cost driver in an apartment building is the backbone, not the charger. A 7 kW Level 2 charger draws roughly twice the power of a 15A outlet, and three-phase Level 2 considerably more, so it needs heavier cabling, larger distribution boards and often a switchboard or supply upgrade, and that cost falls on every owner. Strata Community Association Australasia's case study of a 100-lot retrofit budgeted $2,000 per lot for the backbone alone, plus an average $4,500 per owner for their own charger. Managed Level 1 charging works within the building's existing supply, so most of that backbone cost is never incurred. **What is the process, and how much work is it for the committee?** Six steps: discovery, design with a fixed quote, approval at an AGM or EGM, reservation by interested residents, installation, then growth as more residents join. The approval vote is the only step that requires the building. RSP handles assessment, design, installation, metering, billing and ongoing management. **Are there rebates for charging in apartment buildings?** Some councils and state programs offer rebates for apartment buildings. Eligibility varies by location and program. **Will charging overload the building's electrical system?** Not with Dynamic Load Management. Meters at the main switchboard, common mains and submains report in real time, and the system automatically reduces or pauses charging when the building approaches its safe limit. **Does it work in a basement car park with no Wi-Fi or phone signal?** Yes. No data connection is needed at the charge point or in the car park. The system has been deployed across multi-level basements with no coverage. **Can a resident install their own charger without committee approval?** No. In an apartment car park the work almost always involves common property, which requires Owners Corporation or body corporate approval. Installing in common property without approval breaches the building's by-laws or rules and can be a safety risk. **Do the approval rules differ between states?** Yes. In NSW, EV charging is treated as sustainability infrastructure under section 132B of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and passes on a simple majority. Victoria has no standalone right-to-charge law and works under the Owners Corporations Act 2006, where a significant alteration to common property generally needs a special resolution. Queensland works under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997, where a charger connected to common property counts as an improvement and the approval required depends on the cost and the number of lots. **Can a landlord or body corporate stop a renter from charging?** A renter needs both the landlord's consent and, where common property is involved, the building's approval. In practice the strongest path for a renter is a building-wide solution rather than an individual installation, because it removes the objections that get individual requests refused. **What if the building's electrical mains are old?** This is assessed in the free site assessment. In most buildings, Dynamic Load Management keeps charging within existing capacity without a mains upgrade. If an upgrade is eventually needed, monitoring flags it in advance. **What happens as more residents get electric cars?** The shared infrastructure is designed for full building coverage from the start, and individual spaces are activated as residents need them, without another building-wide electrical project or committee vote. **What happens when a lot is sold?** The infrastructure stays in place. A new owner can charge in their space, or connect to the existing system if the space was not previously set up. No committee vote is needed. **How many electric cars can my building charge?** It depends on the building's electrical capacity and how load is managed. RSP has a free calculator at https://readysteadyplug.com.au/calculator-how-many-evs-can-your-building-charge, confirmed in a site assessment. ## What ReadySteadyPlug is not - Not a seller of Level 2 wall boxes or DC fast chargers for individual bays. - Not a one-off hardware sale. It is an ongoing managed service. - Does not, in most buildings, require a switchboard upgrade or dedicated high-power wiring to every bay. ## Company facts - Name: ReadySteadyPlug (RSP), ReadySteadyPlug Pty Ltd - ABN: 38 681 145 595 - Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - Service coverage: NSW, Victoria, Queensland, ACT, with a national installer partner network - Focus: Managed Level 1 electric car charging for apartment, strata and body corporate buildings - CEO: Jukka Sintonen - Co-founder and CTO: Dean Eislers - CMO: Saku Koskinen - Website: https://readysteadyplug.com.au - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/readysteadyplug/ - ARENA project page: https://arena.gov.au/projects/managed-l1-ev-charging-to-strata-buildings-as-caas/ - Independent review: https://www.solarchoice.net.au/products/ev-chargers/readysteadyplug-review/ ## Articles and guides - [Strata EV Charging: The Complete Guide for Owners Corporations](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/strata-ev-charging): the full reference on how charging works in apartment buildings, why Level 1 suits them, how the electrics stay protected, and what approval takes. - [What Is Dynamic Load Management in EV Charging?](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/what-is-dynamic-load-management): plain-English guide to load management, and how to tell if your building can charge electric cars. - [Do You Really Need a 7kW Charger in Your Apartment Car Park?](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/do-you-really-need-a-7kw-charger-in-your-apartment-car-park): what the driving data says about Level 1 versus Level 2 in apartments. - [Types of EV Chargers: Level 1, 2 and 3 Explained](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/types-of-ev-chargers): the difference between charging levels and what suits typical driving. - [What Strata Managers Need to Know About EV Charging Requests](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/strata-manager-guide-ev-charging-requests): how to handle a resident charging request. - [Are EV Chargers Fire Safe? What Strata Buildings Need to Know](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/ev-charger-fire-safety): charging fire safety in an apartment context. - [How to Get EV Charging Approved in Your Strata Building](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/how-to-get-ev-charging-approved-in-your-strata-building): the approval process and what a committee needs. - [NSW Right to Charge: What the Law Means for Strata Buildings](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/nsw-right-to-charge-law): what NSW law does and does not fix. - [EV Charging in Strata Basement Car Parks: The Wi-Fi Problem](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/ev-charging-basement-car-park-wifi): charging where there is no Wi-Fi or mobile signal. - [ReadySteadyPlug Receives $1.51M ARENA Funding](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/arena): the Driving the Nation grant announcement. - [Strata Residents Are the Last Australians Who Cannot Escape Petrol Prices](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/strata-residents-are-the-last-australians-who-cant-escape-petrol-prices): why home charging matters for apartment residents. - [Up to $10,000 in EV Charging Rebates for Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/rsp-blog/up-to-10000-in-ev-charging-rebates-for-apartment-buildings-in-woollahra-waverley-randwick): council rebates for apartment buildings in those NSW areas. ## Key pages - [How it works](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/how-it-works): the RSP system explained end to end. - [Products](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/products): EVDB hardware, metering, software and app. - [Dynamic Load Management](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/dynamic-load-management): how load management protects the building's electrics. - [For Owners Corporations](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/for-owners-corporations): the case for committees and chairs. - [For strata managers](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/for-strata-managers): how RSP fits a managed portfolio. - [For electricians and installers](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/for-electricians-installers): partnering with RSP on installs. - [How many electric cars can your building charge (calculator)](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/calculator-how-many-evs-can-your-building-charge): estimate your building's charging capacity. - [North Ryde case study](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/160-lot-strata-north-ryde-nsw): 160-lot building, NSW. - [Meadowbank case study](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/strata-building-ev-charger-meadowbank-nsw): Kingston Quarter, 154 lots, NSW. - [FAQs](https://readysteadyplug.com.au/faqs): common questions answered.