British Columbia
Electrical Planning Reports
Every BC strata corporation with five or more lots needs one, and the first deadline is December 31, 2026. It is a separate requirement from your depreciation report, with a separate deadline — but the two land within months of each other, and there is a sensible way to handle both at once.
What an EPR is
An Electrical Planning Report is a complete analysis of your building’s electrical infrastructure. It evaluates the load the system already carries and assesses whether it can handle what owners are going to ask of it next.
EV charging capacity
How many chargers the building could support on its existing service, and what the system would need to support more as owners ask for them.
Solar readiness
Whether the current electrical system can carry a solar retrofit, and what would have to change if it cannot.
Fuel switching
Whether moving from natural gas or propane to fully electric heating or hot water is feasible for the building as it stands.
Present load and headroom
An analysis of the load the system already carries and the spare capacity left for anything new.
The requirement applies to strata corporations with five or more strata lots. It came in with 2023 amendments to the Strata Property Act as BC moved toward electrification, and the content an EPR must contain is set out in sections 5.7 to 5.12 of the Strata Property Regulation. It is not a formality: without one, a strata can face unexpected infrastructure costs, delays approving upgrades owners have asked for, and non-compliance with provincial regulation.
The deadlines
- December 31, 2026 — strata corporations in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the Fraser Valley Regional District and the Capital Regional District.
- December 31, 2028 — everywhere else in British Columbia.
- Five years from the deposit of the strata plan — new strata corporations, instead of the regional date. Phased strata corporations have their own timelines under section 5.9 of the Strata Property Regulation.
Check the islands before you assume 2026. Islands within those first three districts that are reachable only by air or boat are carved out of the early deadline and fall into the 2028 group — Bowen Island in Metro Vancouver, and the Southern Gulf Islands in the Capital Regional District. It is an easy detail to miss, because everything else about those islands sits inside a 2026 region.
Your depreciation report deadline is earlier and separate: July 1, 2026 in those same three regions and July 1, 2027 elsewhere, under Bill 44, which removed the three-quarters vote that used to let a strata defer one. More on the depreciation report cadence.
Both requirements draw on the same small pool of qualified professionals, and both bite at roughly the same time. Providers book months out, and the backlog gets worse the closer a deadline comes.
Who can prepare one
For both Part 3 and Part 9 buildings: a professional engineer or professional licensee (engineering) registered with Engineers and Geoscientists BC, or an applied science technologist or certified technician registered with ASTTBC. For Part 9 buildings only, a journeyperson in the construction or industrial electrician trades is also eligible.
These qualifications are not the same as those for a depreciation report, which is why the two reports are not usually written by the same person — and why a strata generally needs two providers rather than one.
It does not expire
Worth stating plainly, because almost everyone assumes otherwise: there is no renewal cycle for an Electrical Planning Report. A depreciation report must be renewed at least every five years, and a report older than that does not comply — the EPR carries no equivalent interval. The obligation is to obtain one by your deadline.
Reserve Plus does not write EPRs — and here is what we do instead
We should be straight about this. Reserve Plus authors depreciation reports and reserve fund studies. We are not the qualified preparer for an Electrical Planning Report and we do not write them.
What we do is coordinate one. We work with engineers and qualified professionals who prepare EPRs, and we can arrange yours alongside the depreciation report we author — with a bundle discount when the two are combined in one engagement.
The reason that is worth doing is timing rather than paperwork. Both deadlines fall inside the same eighteen months, both draw on qualified professionals who are already booking out, and a strata council that handles them as one project makes one set of decisions, holds one conversation with owners, and is not back at the start of a queue in the autumn of 2026.
Common questions
What is an Electrical Planning Report?
An Electrical Planning Report (EPR) is a complete analysis of a building’s electrical infrastructure. It evaluates the load the system currently carries and assesses whether it can support future upgrades — EV charging, solar retrofits, and switching from gas or propane to electric. Strata corporations with five or more strata lots must obtain one, under amendments to the Strata Property Act made in 2023, with the required content set out in sections 5.7 to 5.12 of the Strata Property Regulation.
When is the EPR deadline in BC?
December 31, 2026 for strata corporations in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the Fraser Valley Regional District and the Capital Regional District — but not islands within those districts that are reachable only by air or boat, such as Bowen Island and the Southern Gulf Islands. Everywhere else in BC, including those islands, the deadline is December 31, 2028. A new strata corporation has five years from the deposit of its strata plan.
How often does an Electrical Planning Report have to be renewed?
It does not. This is the most common point of confusion, because a depreciation report must be renewed at least every five years and people reasonably assume the EPR works the same way. The regulation sets no renewal interval for an Electrical Planning Report — the obligation is to obtain one by your deadline.
Is an Electrical Planning Report the same as a depreciation report?
No. They are two separate requirements with different purposes, different qualified preparers and different deadlines. A depreciation report is a 30-year physical inventory and funding plan covering all common property; an EPR is a capacity assessment of the electrical system only. A BC strata corporation with five or more lots needs both.
Does Reserve Plus write Electrical Planning Reports?
No. Reserve Plus authors depreciation reports and reserve fund studies. We do not write EPRs ourselves — we work with engineers and qualified professionals who do, and can coordinate the EPR alongside your depreciation report, with a bundle discount when the two are combined in one engagement.
Who is qualified to prepare an EPR?
For both Part 3 and Part 9 buildings: a professional engineer or professional licensee (engineering) registered with Engineers and Geoscientists BC, or an applied science technologist or certified technician registered with ASTTBC. For Part 9 buildings only, a journeyperson in the construction or industrial electrician trades is also eligible.
Handle both deadlines together
Request a quote for your depreciation report and we will price the Electrical Planning Report alongside it.
Request a quote