Electric Vehicle

Iberdrola Leads Initiative to Roll Out Electric Cars In Valencia

Iberdrola is spearheading the EPV (Electrical Powered Vehicles) project aimed at adding electric cars to the Valencia region’s urban transport modes. The initiative, coordinated with the Institute of Electric Technology (ITE for its acronym in Spanish), commands a €1 million budget and will be completed over 21 months.

Eight other companies are involved in the project: Movus, which works on urban mobility solutions; Power Electronics and Montesol, utilities; GND and CPD, both in the automotive industry; Nutai, a company specialising in automation, supervision and control; TecniBat, from the electric battery sector; and Idom, a consultancy.

The EPV plan led by IBERDROLA will be advised by the Valencian Energy Agency (AVEN for its acronym in Spanish) and co-funded by the Valencia regional government, through Industrial Council grants for strategic industrial diversification initiatives in 2009, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The key thrusts of this initiative are identifying the usage patterns for the future vehicle, studying new business models, finding standard charging solutions, determining where charging stations should be installed, managing the vehicle’s energy, and developing and installing a pilot charging station.

IBERDROLA and its project partners will also analyse the use of wind power in charging electric cars, matching energy demand for this type of vehicle to peak energy production periods.

The initiative seeks to help flatten the energy demand curve by having the electric vehicles recharge overnight, thereby making better use of renewable energy sources, mainly wind.

Strong commitment to innovation and renewable energies

IBERDROLA’s participation in this project reflects its commitment to developing innovative initiatives that will ensure the company’s ongoing leadership in the sector’s technological advances. As a case in point, IBERDROLA is the world’s most innovative utility, according to the Boston Consulting Group, and the Spanish utility investing the most in this field, in an assessment by the European Union.

In addition, the company’s coordination of this initiative is in line with its firm commitment to renewable energies, especially wind power, making it the global industry leader, with close to 10,500 MW capacity installed worldwide as of the end of last September.

www.iberdrola.es/webibd/corporativa/iberdrola