The Regional Director for Energy stressed the Regional Government's commitment to promote electric mobility through the creation of a publicly accessible infrastructure for charging electric vehicles as well as the “focus on emerging and innovative electric mobility technologies for efficient use in power networks."
 
Andreia Carreiro spoke in Ponta Delgada at the opening of a fast charging station based on an innovative technology that combines an electric vehicle charging unit with a storage system.
 
"This technology allows the electric vehicle under load not to use all the power directly supplied from the network at that time, with the possibility of resorting to the integrated storage system for that purpose." In turn, the electric vehicle "should be charged, preferably in the off-peak period when tariffs are lower, which increases the integration of renewable and endogenous energy sources into the power system," stressed the Regional Director.
 
"During the off-peak period, usually at night, there is a greater potential for using renewable energy sources, especially wind power, which is sometimes not fully exploited due to lack of demand," the government official said.
 
In the context of the archipelago, this type of storage is "essential for a smart and efficient management of the power networks of the nine islands," Andreia Carreiro said, highlighting the potentialities of this system to "provide greater stability and reliability to the network by achieving a balance between power demand and supply. 
 
"In the future, it is intended that electric vehicles themselves operate as a decentralised battery, allowing a two-way exchange interaction with the network, through the vehicle to grid (V2G) concept, making use of the flexibility of the energy stored in its batteries to inject it into the network. In this scenario, electric vehicle users will become active agents providing ancillary services to the power system," said the Regional Director.
 
"We are talking about fundamental dynamics in promoting energy transition based on digitisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation in order to ensure an increasingly clean, safe, competitive and accessible energy for all,” said Andreia Carreiro.