Fortum Charge & Drive expands to Poland through cooperation with Energa
FORTUM CORPORATION ONLINE NEWS 22 February 2017
Fortum Charge & Drive has signed a cooperation contract with the Polish energy company Energa to provide the Charge & Drive cloud solution, enabling Energa to operate its electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Based on this cloud solution, Energa will start EV charging service with seven charging stations in the cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot with plans to use the solution to further expand its charging infrastructure in Poland.
The cooperation agreement was signed between Fortum and Enspiron, the Energa Group company responsible for e-mobility product development. The agreement enables the introduction of the Fortum Charge & Drive cloud solution to operate Energa’s existing EV charging stations as well as the chargers to be installed in the future. Energa currently operates six charging facilities in Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia, and the company also plans to install a new charger by the end of February. The use of charging stations is free of charge. The move to Charge & Drive cloud solution is scheduled for March and that process will not affect Energa’s on-going charging service.
“We consider the development of e-mobility to be one of the most interesting business areas. The market is inevitably moving towards the point when customers will have to start paying for EV charging. Thanks to the agreement with a renowned international partner, we will be ready for that. The cooperation guarantees access to up-to-date technologies, which are effectively used in the Nordics, where electric vehicles are more popular. In the near future we aspire to dynamically develop the EV charging infrastructure in Poland and thanks to that system we will be able to cooperate with other charging stations owners in the country by connecting them into our network," says Tadeusz Wita, Chairman of Enspirion.
The Fortum Charge & Drive cloud solution enables remote monitoring and upgrades, and provides easy payment for the use of chargers. These past years show that the establishment of a complex infrastructure of EV charging points requires advanced and reliable solutions to operate the chargers as well as customer-oriented solutions to support the increased use of electric vehicles. EV drivers expect real-time information on the accessibility and location of EV chargers as well as straightforward payment solutions. Despite great customer service, the high quality of the chargers is also crucial.
“We are pleased that our charging infrastructure solutions are gaining global recognition. At the moment, our system provides services for more than 1,200 charging points. In Norway alone, we have 60,000 charging sessions per month. We are convinced that this cooperation will contribute significantly to the development of the e-mobility sector in Poland,” says Rami Syväri, Head of International Sales & Business Development, Fortum Charge & Drive.
Fortum Corporation
Communications
For more information, please contact:
Rami Syväri, Head of International Sales & Business Development, Fortum Charge & Drive, mobile +358 40 7095566
The Energa group
The Energa Group is one of the four largest utilities in Poland and the leader of the Polish market measured by the percentage of renewable energy in its own generation fleet. The Group supplies and sells electricity to more than 2.9 million household and business customers.
Enspirion is an Energa Group member company established to develop innovations. Its principal business consists of Demand Side Response and Emobility, a project we have been pursuing for several years to roll out charging infrastructure and electromobility services.
Fortum
Fortum is a leading clean-energy company that provides its customers with electricity, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. We want to engage our customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. We employ some 8,000 professionals in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, Poland and India, and 62% of our electricity generation is CO2 free. In 2016, our sales were EUR 3.6 billion. Fortum's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.fortum.com
Fortum Charge & Drive is a pioneer in electric vehicle charging and has a network of 1200 affiliated smart chargers in the Nordic countries. Charge & Drive aims to respond to an increasing global demand in emobility, by providing world-class cloud solutions. Charge & Drive Cloud provides an intuitive end user interface and a comprehensive back-end system which supports Charge Point Operators in the remote management of Charging Stations.