The network of public charging stations of the ČEZ Group in the Czech Republic filled electric car batteries with the total of 487,322 kWh of electricity during last year. This is an almost fourfold increase compared to the consumption of 128,600 kWh in 2016. The total of 35,902 charging sessions were recorded in areas that, thanks to the parameters of its high-efficiency 50kW stations, allow most electric cars to charge 80% of their battery capacity in approximately 20-30 minutes. The Prague areas of Corso Court Karlín (52,171 kWh) and Brumlovka (40,584 kWh), and Černovická in Brno (37,868 kWh) are the busiest stations.
The ČEZ Electromobility project operates the largest network of public charging stations for electric cars in the Czech Republic – along with the current 41 fast charging stations, there are also 53 so-called normal charging stations available to drivers. For more, visit http://www.elektromobilita.cz/cs/mapa-dobijecich-stanic.html. Last year, the customers of ČEZ Electromobility consumed a total of 640,426 kWh of electricity from all stations including the normal charging stations. ČEZ also newly offers its Electricity for Charging product to the owners of electric cars, which lowers the costs of electric car use and guarantees the supply of green electricity to the customer's household.
When using any charging station in the entire network, customers identify themselves using a RFID card before charging. The construction of public fast charging stations is partly funded through two grants of the European CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) program, whose challenge has been successfully met by ČEZ in the past year and in the year before. The European Commission thus provides support for the interconnection of Europe by building charging stations along the main TENT-T road network.
“During two phases of the ČEZ project – “EV Fast Charging Backbone Network Central Europe” – over 100 fast charging stations will be built by 2020. Of course, above the scope of these areas, we also continue to build stations from our own funds,” said Tomáš Chmelík, Section Manager of the Clean Energy Department of ČEZ.
ČEZ ESCO from the ČEZ Group also, at the same time, offers a wide range of related services and products for companies, municipalities and regions in the field of electromobility. This includes, for example, design and installation of turn-key charging stations, electrification of car fleets, charging platforms, including IT solutions, rentals or sales of electric cars or wall boxes and charging cables. For local authorities, ČEZ offers the implementation and operation of charging stations for electric buses or design of electromobility concepts for individual towns and regions.
The ČEZ Group’s Electromobility operates fast charging stations supplied by ABB Czech Republic. Its standard equipment includes DC connectors compliant with the CHAdeMO and CCS charging standards, which allow charging at up to a 50kW power output. They also offer AC charging with a socket compliant with the Mennekes standard, the charging output of which can reach up to 22kW.
There are currently over 1,500 electric cars registered in the Czech Republic. 400 electric vehicles newly registered just in the course of the last year. In January of this year, the number further increased by 25 vehicles. As is the case in other developed European countries, electric cars are becoming a common part of traffic in the Czech Republic, especially in the cities. The gradual removal of the biggest barriers (limited choice of electric cars, their high price, low density of charging infrastructure and low customer experience) combined with supportive measures (free entry into city centres, parking zones, permission to drive in lanes dedicated to public transport, etc.) should lead to a quick increase to 20% of the total quantity of passenger and light utility vehicles sold in the Czech Republic.