Enel and Hubject to Develop eRoaming across Europe

The Enel Group, through its distribution subsidiary Enel Distribuzione SpA, and Hubject GmbH announced the signature of a cooperation agreement whereby both parties will work together for the development of a Europe-wide ‘eRoaming’ framework.

Through eRoaming, electric vehicle drivers are enabled to charge on facilities that are not owned nor operated by the utility they are customers of. The common goal of the cooperation will be to enable electric vehicle drivers to charge their cars on around 5,000 facilities across an area spanning from Sicily to Lapland with each recharge being automatically billed to their utility customer accounts back at home.

The Enel Group is one of the largest operators of recharge facilities in Europe with more than 1,600 charging points installed in Italy and, through its subsidiary Endesa, in Spain. To foster eRoaming across Europe, Enel has developed EMM, the ‘electric mobility management’ system, an eRoaming platform supporting the Group’s charging points as well as those recharge facilities owned or operated by other players in Spain, Italy, Romania and Greece. Altogether, EMM supports over 2,000 charging points.

Hubject operates a European eRoaming platform since May 2013. Over 120 European platform participants share the aim to provide their customers with barrier-free access to public charging points for electric vehicles throughout Europe. Almost 3,000 European recharge facilities are already accessible via Hubject’s eRoaming platform and identifiable through the ‘intercharge’ logo, the common European compatibility symbol of customer-friendly electric vehicle recharging and billing. Alongside Italy and Germany, several partners from Austria, the Benelux states, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are part of the intercharge family.

The cooperation between Enel and Hubject in the eRoaming domain is one of the main outcomes of Green eMotion, the EU research project on electric mobility grouping 43 partners from industry, the energy sector, electric vehicle manufacturers, municipalities, universities as well as research institutions.

“We are well aware of the need for user-friendly electric vehicle recharge both domestically and cross-national borders,” commented Livio Gallo, Director of Enel’s Global Infrastructure and Networks Division. “Within the framework of the current agreement Enel and Hubject will mutually exchange information, know-how and expertise with the aim to make EMM and intercharge compatible. Enel and Hubject will therefore accelerate the interconnection of recharge infrastructures across Europe, with a view to creating a new European electric mobility model greatly enhancing driver comfort and, ultimately, promoting an eco-friendly travel culture.”

“Starting point for our collaboration with Enel was the research project Green eMotion,” said Andreas Pfeiffer, CEO of Hubject GmbH. “We see that intercharge is turning the vision of a commonly accepted framework into reality. Together with our partners we have achieved major steps in the direction of a customer-friendly European charging network. With Enel we have found another strong and experienced partner to work with in order to accelerate the growth of the interoperable charging infrastructure in Europe.”