On 5 September, the third call for legal entities to benefit from the Lithuanian Energy Agency’s support for the installation of private charging stations for electric vehicles in workplaces started. This time, the support has been increased. Up from 30% previously. This has now risen to 50%. eligible costs. However, you can’t just pick any bus stop and apply for a refund.
“The main requirement for a station is that it must have a dynamic power controller, which must be up and running when installed. It is essential to use specialists to choose the right equipment, because we do encounter customers who install one or two stations to save money, and when they want to increase the number of stations, it becomes impossible because the existing equipment does not support the required protocols and there is no provision for infrastructure expansion. The dynamic power controller allows all stations to be power-balanced, and 10, 20 or 30 units can be installed. 22 kW stations using the available power,” explained Paulius Gūžys, the head of Įkrautas, the company that sells and installs the stations.
Dynamic power controllers protect the electrical input against blown fuses. It also makes better use of existing power lines. Increasing the charging infrastructure will not require the purchase of additional power from ESO and will not require the payment of a capacity charge, but will make use of the available capacity.
The Lithuanian Energy Agency finances the purchase of the equipment, the dynamic power management equipment, the installation works and the grid connection costs. The rate of support for the third phase, which will run from 5 September 2024 to 29 August 2025, will be 50 %. of the eligible costs mentioned above. However, the support is not calculated on the amount proposed by the contractor, but on the amount of the project as set by the Ministry of Energy.
The Ministry of Energy’s market analysis has identified average prices for the installation of charging stations according to the capacity of the station, the location of the installation, whether it is wall-mounted or ground-mounted, and the characteristics of the station. For each scenario, the Ministry has set average market prices and assigned a certain financing intensity depending on the scale of the project and the technology.
“According to the 2024. 5 September small businesses, public legal entities and medium-sized or large enterprises eligible for minor (de minimis) State aid can apply for and receive up to 50% of the total amount of State aid. funding for private charging points for electric cars. For example, a company can receive €992.97 for each wall-mounted access and €1,661.91 for each ground-mounted access,” said Laura Bogušienė, Senior Project Manager at the LEA’s Project Administration Unit, giving examples.
“In reality, the price is not a constant, it varies, because one stop can cost €500, another €1,500, a third €3,600 excluding VAT. And each client’s object is different. One customer may have to dig a few metres, another may have to dig a hundred metres. The quantity of cables and other materials varies, so it is difficult to objectively assess the rates provided by ENA. However, in most cases it is possible to fit in the support, the most important thing is to turn to specialists to help find the best solution,” commented the representative of “Įkrautas”.
Support for charging infrastructure for legal entities is open to all companies, public bodies, municipalities, NGOs, educational and other institutions. It is important to check the de minimis or BBIR support registered in the KOTIS system before making decisions. Applications can be submitted via ena.lt, but it is recommended to check the remaining amount of funding in KOTIS before filling in the application.
The budget for the third round of grants is €7,453,228.86. It is also important to consider in advance how many charging stations you plan to install.
After the project has been completed, all VAT invoices, the installation/installation handover certificate, the technical specification of the equipment, photographs of the installed bus stop and signage, and the company/organisation’s social media post about the project will need to be submitted in order to be eligible for support.
The official deadline for assessing applications is 55 working days, but experts say that in practice it can take longer, up to 3 months and in some cases up to 6 months.
“The main challenge and the reason for the lengthening of the grant deadlines are errors in applications and payment requests,” said Laura Bogušienė.
“The experts at Charged advise that when submitting documents after the project has been implemented, an attached payment request can significantly shorten the time it takes to receive a payment.
“Phase 3 support is really working. As soon as the call went out, the number of requests for bus stops from businesses increased by around 40%,” said Paulius Gūžys.
According to the LEA, more than 250 applications were received in the first two months of the third call for support, compared to a total of 255 in the first call and 556 in the second.
The growing network of EV charging facilities in Lithuanian company parking lots shows that the support is effective in achieving the objectives: to reduce overall emissions, to contribute to the development of a sustainable transport system in Lithuania and to promote the development of the country’s EV infrastructure, and to enable residents to charge their EVs at their workplaces.
Having our own charging infrastructure will encourage more and more company employees to switch to clean, electric vehicles. In addition, the ability to charge an electric car at the workplace will motivate an increasing proportion of the population to switch away from combustion engines. In the future, topping up the battery of an electric car will become even easier, as Lithuania aims to install 53,000 EVs by March 2026. private charging stations.
