Commitment and investment effort. With these trump cards, EDP is turning Asturias into one of the development motors of charging infrastructures in Spain. Because the energy company has launched 101 charging points in public spaces of the Principality. The last facilities to be available for drivers are the ones located in the parking lot of the Hospital de Jove (Gijón) and in the Prehistoric Park (Teverga).

Since January, and taking into account the Alert State from March to June, drivers have recharged in the EDP points the energy needed to travel 375 000 km with their vehicles (more than 56 000 kWh), which would be 100 trips from Gijón to Moscow.

The facility where the users have demanded more energy this year is the one located in the gas station of La Fresneda, in Siero. It has recharged a total of 4 176 kWh, enough to travel 28 000 km.

EDP’s engagement to turn Asturias into a reference in electric mobility in Spain began in 2011, when it reached an agreement with the council of Gijón to start up the first installations in Asturias. They were three, and were located in the town hall, in the Avenue El Molinón and in Canga Argüelles.

From the installation of these first points until now, EDP has reinforced its commitment with the region till reaching those 101 charging points, where drivers have recharged enough energy (250 000kWh) to make 120 times the longest driven distance of the planet (14 000 km), which is the one that joins the Portuguese city of Sagres with Khasan, in Russia.

To install and maintain all those charging points, EDP has 5 000 km of cables and a contracted power of 1 600 kW, the one that would be added up by an average of 350 households. This shows the capacity that the electric distribution network has to cover the needs of electric mobility.

This points’ location is key to encourage the use of electric vehicles. Therefore, EDP has promoted installations in strategic areas, so that it is possible to move these kinds of vehicles all around the region.

Drivers have charging points both in the cities with more population – Gijón, Oviedo and Avilés – and in the main roads – A-66 and A8, and also in rural and touristic areas. Among other locations, there are facilities in the Airport of Asturias, in universities’ campus, Sobrescobio, Taramundi, Llanera, Villaviciosa, Cangas de Onís, Mieres, Somiedo, Laviana, Tineo o Amieva.

EDP has placed Gijón as the city of reference in electric mobility in the north of Spain. The company has already started up 26 charging facilities in the city, 3 of which are fast.

In order to launch all these points, the company has reached agreements to promote electric mobility in different entities, like town halls and gas stations. The agreement of the Principality to start up installations in Asturian’s Jurassic Museum (Colunga) and the Prehistoric Park (Teverga) also stands out, which favors the sustainable tourism promoted in the region. In this agreement is framed one of the next points that EDP will launch in the region, that will be located in La Laboral.

Equally, the company has arranged a net of facilities throughout the Cantabric Road (A8), with 10 fast points. The largest distance between them is of 70km, that links the installation of Cudillero with the one of Tapia de Casariego, being both result of the agreement with the gas stations AVIA in the region.

The availability in public spaces of fast points also continues to be on the rise: EDP has already started up 16 of these chargers and soon another one will be summed in Granda, Siero, outside of Casintra’s installations. These points, that have a power of 50 kW, allow to recharge the vehicles in barely 20 minutes.

The management of EDP points is carried out through EDP’s platform MoveOn, which has been developed by an Asturian company, Oxígeno Empresarial, and sums more than 2 500 users already. Among them, apart from Spaniards, there are English, French, Germans, Norwegians and Swedes. With the app, users have control over their recharges, the map of chargers and know, among other functionalities, the distance to every installation, its availability and the type of plug.

The company has updated the platform this August with an important novelty. It has incorporated interoperability, a functionality that enables users to recharge their vehicles through the app not only in EDP’s points, but also in the ones from other companies that have activated this possibility.

EDP’s strategy includes giving electric vehicles the needed infrastructure to recharge their cars in their trips. This type of charging, known as “backup” or “opportunity”, is complementary to the main one, which is the one that is carried out in the residence. For these charges, also available for businesses and firms, the company offers integral electric mobility solutions, with installations and management platforms adapted to each need.

Apart from Asturias, the company continues to extend its installation’s network in strategic areas of Spain. This year it has launched the first fast point in the A-66 in the section of the road that connects León with Benavente, in the gas station of Palazuelo. The company has installations in Cantabria, the Basque Country, Madrid, Seville, the Valencian Community and Murcia.

The electric vehicle is the only one with 0% emissions, at the same time that its use does not entail acoustic pollution. Moreover, its efficiency is three times superior to the one of combustible engine, and regarding the recharging price, savings are of 90% in comparison with traditional cars.

Sustainable mobility is one of EDP’s priorities. It is one of the fields that will impact the most the energy sector, and it will be essential for transport’s decarbonization, representing a growing percentage of cars’ sales in the world.