25/02/2025

ERSE – Energy Services Regulatory Authority approved the pilot project “New solutions for flexible management of electric vehicle charging power in collective buildings (FlexC)”, promoted by E-REDES – Distribuição de Energia, S.A., within the scope of the Commercial Relations Code.

The FlexC pilot project, which will initially last six months, aims to test, in a real environment, the possibility of providing additional power for charging electric vehicles in shared garages of collective buildings and to assess the level of interest in this new concept, mainly by customers who use electric vehicles and suppliers of charging solutions.

The pilot project aims to respond to some challenges that currently still limit the charging of electric vehicles in residential buildings, since most of them do not have the infrastructure for such charging, which would imply costs in reinforcing the connection to the grid. On the other hand, there is power available in collective facilities that is not being used or is available at certain times of the day, and that could be harnessed with this FlexC solution to promote home charging and, in this way,  be an inducement to reduce barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles by consumers.

E-REDES interacted with several agents in the sector, selecting seven residential buildings, which could include a maximum of 62 electric vehicle charging points. The implementation of the pilot project is also based on the participation of four partners, responsible for the system managing the charging, specifically EDP Comercial, EVIO, KLC and Smart Energy Lab.

For consumers who adopt this solution to charge their electric vehicles, there are direct benefits, both by avoiding the need to reinforce the connection of the collective building to the public service power grid, and also because its implementation takes less time than a connection reinforcement project. Benefits are also expected for other consumers, since more efficient use of available power will reduce investments in public grid reinforcements, which would burden all consumers in the electricity sector.

To carry out the pilot project, ERSE approved the derogation of the applicable rule for determining the contracted power of the shared garages of the participating buildings, thus avoiding an increase in the billing due to the participation in the pilot. Furthermore, the pilot may be extended beyond the initial duration, up to a maximum duration of two years, if the analysis report, to be presented by E-REDES to ERSE, proves the expected benefits. The experience and recommendations that may result from the pilot project will be considered in the development of the regulatory framework.

In addition to the ERSE Directive, which approves the rules of the FlexC pilot project, E-REDES, the promoter of the pilot project, will disclose additional information about its implementation and results.