On Thursday, the Administración Nacional de Usinas y Transmisiones Eléctricas (UTE) launched the tender that plans to install 20 continuous charging points in the country as part of its plan to develop an infrastructure that connects the entire national territory.
According to unofficial sources, 13 companies submitted bids, some with more than one proposal, such as ABB, Siemens and Abriley. They are 120 kilowatt chargers with two CCS2 connectors each.
«It is a major purchase. Perhaps the amounts are similar to the previous purchase we had made, but this one, being of direct current, will allow us to install 20 devices in the country and have an essential coverage for the development of the market», says Diego Bentancur, head of the Electric Mobility project at UTE, in an interview with Portal Movilidad.
In this regard, the UTE representative refers to the purchase of chargers in 2020, awarded to the Portuguese company EFACEC through KPN Energy Uruguay. At that time, 12 SAVE 100kW chargers with three chargers were purchased.
On the other hand, according to Bentancur, several months of work were spent on the tender documents, given that the aim was to «be demanding with the specifications in order to have equipment that provides performance based on the latest technologies on the market».
According to its experience in this type of process, the agency projects that there will be two months of studies and a period of approximately six months for delivery. It is therefore expected to have the charging equipment in hand by the last quarter of the year.
In the meantime, assembly work will be carried out to ensure the rapid introduction into service of the equipment in question.
This concourse also shows the Uruguayan government’s preference for CCS2 as the standard norm. According to recent reports, the authorities are working on a regulation for electrical charging and it is expected that a standardisation framework will soon be outlined.
In this way, UTE continues to advance in the installation of charging infrastructure in every department of the country, although this time the innovation is fast charging.
As of today, in fact, around 120 chargers have been installed.
During the last twelve months, UTE has made progress in the signing of agreements with the different departments of the country to such an extent that, to date, 12 agreements have been signed with the authorities of Canelones, Cerro Largo, Florida, Maldonado -the first one to sign- Montevideo, Paysandú, Río Negro, Rivera, Rocha, Salto, San José and Treinta y tres.
In this way, this year will be sought to finalise arrangements with the remaining ones. These are: Artigas, Colonia, Durazno, Flores, Lavalleja, Soriano and Tacuarembó, which will seek to reach the goal before the end of 2022, as planned.