I Broke My Budget on an EV Charger Install (And Built a Checklist So You Don’t)

I’ve been handling procurement and installation logistics for commercial energy storage systems for about six years now. My first real project was in 2019—spec’ing out the power infrastructure for a small EV charging depot. I made a lot of mistakes that year. Like, the kind where you look back and realize you could have bought a decent used car with the money you lit on fire.

One of the worst was an LG Energy Solution battery pack order for a marine storage application. We needed a 500 kWh gravity-based buffer system to stabilize a small fleet of electric workboats. I got the battery specs right. I got the inverter specs right. I got the installation timeline wrong by about six weeks, and the cost wrong by about 40 percent. The ‘surprise’ expenses—civil engineering, electrical upgrades, and a permit I didn’t know existed—added $14,000 to a project that had already been approved.

That was the point I started keeping a pre-installation checklist. I’ve since used it on about a dozen projects, ranging from a single Level 2 charger at a small business to a multi-unit marine ESS installation. I’ve caught 47 potential errors using this checklist in the past 18 months. Here’s the version I wish I had in 2019.

Who This Checklist Is For

This is for anyone buying and installing an LG Energy Solution product (or any similar lithium-ion battery system, to be honest) in a B2B context. It’s for the person who has to sign the PO, not the engineer who designs the system. You’re not a battery expert, you’re a procurement or facility manager. You need to make sure the thing works and doesn’t blow up your budget or schedule.

Step 1: Define the ‘Real’ Scope of Work (Not Just the Battery)

Most people start by asking, “How much does the LG battery cost?” That’s the wrong question. You should ask, “What is the total installed cost to make this battery functional?”

Here’s what I forgot in 2019:

• Site survey costs: A structural engineer needs to confirm your floor (or marine deck) can handle the weight. For our marine battery, the floor reinforcement added $2,500.
• Electrical infrastructure: The battery doesn’t just plug in. You need a dedicated circuit, often a new breaker panel, and sometimes a transformer upgrade. For the EV charger install, I forgot the conduit and wiring was a separate line item—another $3,800.
• Permitting and inspection: I had no idea a marine battery installation required a separate environmental permit. The city’s planning department was... not amused. $1,200 for the permit, two weeks of delay.
• Network connectivity: ESS monitoring systems need internet access. Running a Cat6 cable or setting up a cellular modem is a cost I never put in the initial budget.

When I compared our ‘just the battery’ quote to the final install cost side by side, I finally understood why the details matter so much. The battery was 55 percent of the total, but the other 45 percent is where the surprises live.

Step 2: Ask ‘What’s NOT Included?’ Before You Sign Anything

I learned this the hard way after the third ‘cheap’ vendor cost me 30 percent more than the ‘expensive’ one.

Here’s something vendors won’t tell you: the first quote is almost never the final price for ongoing relationships, but it IS often the stripped-down version. They’re competing on price to win the PO, so they leave out everything that isn’t strictly the battery and basic BMS (Battery Management System).

I now have a standard list of questions I ask before accepting any quote:

• Does this price include shipping and freight? (A 500 kWh marine battery isn’t exactly standard FedEx ground.)
• Is commissioning included, or is that an extra day rate? (Typically $1,500-$2,500/day for an LG-certified technician.)
• Who pays for the LG Energy Solution engineer to do the site visit? (If it’s not included, budget for it.)
• What about software licensing for the monitoring platform? (Some LG ESS platforms have annual fees.)
• Is the warranty activated on delivery or on first power-on? (This matters for timeline planning.)

The vendor who lists all fees upfront—even if the total looks higher—usually costs less in the end. I’ve seen this pattern many times. But when I say ‘many,’ I do not mean just a few—I mean consistently across about 30 vendor evaluations over three years.

Step 3: Match the Battery Chemistry to Your Actual Duty Cycle

This is the step most people think they understand but get wrong. It’s tempting to think you can just compare kilowatt-hour (kWh) ratings. But identical kWh specs from different LG Energy Solution lines (NMC vs. LFP) can result in wildly different outcomes for your real-world use case.

I once specified an LG Energy Solution LFP pack for a marine application where the duty cycle required daily deep discharges. LFP is great for longevity and safety, but its cycle life is rated at 80 percent Depth of Discharge (DoD). If you’re cycling it to 95 percent DoD every day, you’re degrading the battery faster than the spec sheet suggests. We caught that error during commissioning—the system’s BMS was set to a default 90 percent DoD, which was fine, but the client’s operational pattern would have pushed it to 98 percent. A firmware setting change fixed it, but if I hadn’t asked, we’d have had premature capacity loss within a year.

What most people don’t realize is that ‘standard turnaround’ for battery commissioning often includes buffer time that vendors use to manage their production queue. It’s not necessarily how long YOUR order takes if you need a custom BMS configuration. Ask for the actual firmware load time, not the quoted ‘lead time.’

Step 4: Install a Physical Isolation Switch (And Check the Wiring Diagram)

This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised. On a $3,200 order for a small ESS, I once skipped checking the wiring diagram because I assumed it was standard. It wasn’t. The LG Energy Solution battery pack had a specific terminal layout that required a specific breaker rating. The electrician installed a generic 60A breaker when the spec called for a 100A unit with a specific trip curve. We caught that during the pre-commissioning inspection. The mistake affected the entire order—every single battery unit had the same incorrect breaker spec. That error cost $890 in redo plus a 1-week delay while we sourced the right parts.

Here’s my rule: before the electrician touches a single wire, print the wiring diagram. Put it on the wall next to the battery. Have the electrician initial it. Have the site foreman initial it. Then take a picture. It sounds bureaucratic, but it’s the cheapest insurance you can buy.

Step 5: Test the Communication Protocol Before You Commission

This is the step everyone forgets, and it’s the one that causes the most commissioning delays. LG Energy Solution batteries communicate via CAN bus, Modbus, or sometimes a proprietary protocol. Your inverter (like a Sungrow or SMA) or your EMS (Energy Management System) needs to speak the same protocol with the same settings.

I once had a project where the LG battery and the inverter were both ‘Modbus compatible,’ but the baud rate was set differently. The inverter was at 9600 baud; the battery expected 19200. We spent three hours with a laptop and a serial adapter figuring out why the system wouldn’t start. The fix took 30 seconds. What most people don’t realize is that protocol settings aren’t ‘plug and play.’ You need to get the technical datasheet for both devices and confirm the settings before the installation day. It’s a 15-minute phone call that can save a three-hour site visit.

A Note on Gravity Battery Energy Storage (The Buzzword Trap)

I’ve had three clients ask about ‘gravity battery’ systems this year. They’re a real technology (Energy Vault is the most famous example), but they’re not plug-and-play like an LG Energy Solution containerized ESS. The term ‘gravity battery’ sometimes gets confused with ‘grid-scale storage.’ If someone tells you they can install a gravity-based system in a marine container without significant civil works, they’re selling you a story. The real gravity systems are enormous (multi-megawatt) and require specific geographic features (like a mine shaft or a steep incline). For 500 kWh to 1 MWh commercial applications, lithium-ion (like LG’s LFP) is still the practical choice. I only believed this after ignoring that advice once and trying to spec a ‘gravity’ system for a client. The feasibility study alone cost $4,000 and told us what I should have known: it didn’t fit.

One Final Piece of Advice: The Post-Installation Review

I still kick myself for not documenting the first EV charging station install properly. I got it done, but I didn’t write down what went wrong. If I’d kept a log, I’d have caught the ‘missing conduit cost’ pattern three projects earlier. After the third rejection from a finance manager who didn’t approve the ‘surprise’ electrical work, I created our pre-check list.

Do the post-installation review within 30 days. Write down three things: what went over budget, what went over schedule, and what the electrician said you should have known. This isn’t just for the file—it’s for the next project. The most frustrating part of this industry is repeating the same mistakes because you didn’t take 30 minutes to write down the lesson.

Per LG Energy Solution’s product documentation (accessed January 2025), verify all specifications directly with the manufacturer for your specific model as details may change without notice. Current pricing and warranty terms should be confirmed with your local LG ESS representative.