The Local Governing Board of Benidorm City Council has given the go-ahead for a contract to put up additional electric vehicle charging stations in the Levante area. The 2022 Destination Tourism Sustainability Plan, “Benidorm Vision 360,” will pay for this initiative with Next Generation EU monies. Aida García Mayor and Francis Muñoz, the councillors for European Funds and Mobility, made this announcement. They stressed that the project’s goal is to “promote electric mobility as a key element in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to a more sustainable mobility model.”
The expected tender price for the contract is €106,618.55, and the building period is three months at the most. The project, for which the contract is being offered through a conventional and streamlined open bidding process, will involve putting in two electric vehicle charging points that can provide a total of 80 kW of power. Each charging station will have two CCS Combo 2 (FF) connections set up for 1×80 kW / 2×40 kW and charging mode 4. This will let up to four electric cars charge at the same time, either quickly or slowly.
The new charging stations will be put up on Avenida de Juan Fuster Zaragoza, close to the Rincón de Loix Administrative Extension, and on Avenida de Filipinas where it meets Calle Gerona.
The project also includes putting in an ORMA13 type concrete cabinet to hold the Low Voltage Main Distribution Board (CGBT) and metering equipment, as well as doing everything else that needs to be done to install, legalise, and start it up. This comprises processing access to and connection to the distribution company’s network, setting up the guarantee according to the rules of the sector, and finishing the procedures for legalisation and administrative authorisation.
The councillor in charge of the Mobility area said that this project “allows us to continue advancing in the application of the Electric Mobility Plan of the Municipality of Benidorm (MOVELE),” which is a strategic document that was approved in December 2022. One of its goals is “the progressive deployment, throughout the municipality, of an infrastructure of charging points for electric vehicles, offering citizens and visitors the possibility of charging their vehicles using fast and semi-fast chargers, in accordance with the objectives of environmental sustainability, energy efficiency and reduction of emissions,” Muñoz said.
The project also talks about its “environmental, functional, and tourism-related” impact. This is because it will allow for the expansion and improvement of the municipal electric vehicle charging infrastructure; the promotion of electric mobility among residents, local businesses, and visitors to the municipality; the reduction of transport-related emissions and the improvement of energy efficiency; and, finally, the enhancement of Benidorm’s tourism competitiveness as a destination committed to sustainability and the energy transition.
Francis Muñoz also said that the planned locations for the charging points “have already been validated and agreed upon with i-DE (Redes Eléctricas Inteligentes, SAU, part of the Iberdrola group), and the corresponding applications for access to and connection with the electrical grid for the necessary new supplies are being processed.”
The Councillor for European Funds said that the Benidorm City Council applied for the extraordinary call for proposals for the 2022 Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, which the European Union is funding with Next Generation EU funds. The Destination Tourism Sustainability Plan “Benidorm Vision 360” received €6,103,783 in funding. Aida García Mayor said, “This plan has 16 actions, grouped into four strategic axes.” She went on to say that the project to put in electric vehicle charge points in the Levante area is part of the fourth segment of “Axis 2: Improvement of Energy Efficiency.”
