Spain orders petrol stations to install fast chargers

In Spain, more than 1,000 large petrol stations will have to offer at least one fast-charging point for electric vehicles from 2023. This is now stipulated in a proposal for a ministerial decree just published by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment.

The proposed regulation would affect petrol stations that sell more than five million litres of fuel per year or have a “relevant size” in their area. This would probably also affect petrol stations that are below the sales threshold but are unrivalled in their area. In other words, if there is no petrol station in a province, on an island or in an autonomous city that sells more than five million litres, the largest petrol station in the area will be obliged to do so.

This means that according to the ministry, more than 1,000 filling stations will have to install charging points, unless they fall under one of the exceptions, like, for example, if the charging station is not technically feasible on site. But there is also a further differentiation within the 1,000 filling stations: locations that sold more than ten million litres of petrol or diesel in 2019 (i.e. before the effects of the Corona pandemic) must operate at least one charging point with at least 150 kW within the next 21 months, i.e. by February 2023. This should add up to be around 200 filling stations.

The 800 or so filling stations with fuel sales of between five and ten million litres (or which fall under the obligation because of their regional weight) also have lower charging point requirements: here, a charging point with more than 50 kW must be in operation within 27 months (by August 2023).

In addition to the technical feasibility – be it because of the grid connection or the “industrial quality and safety requirements” – another exception applies: and that is for petrol stations that already have a charging point according to the regulations applicable to their size. Thus, even a large petrol station that only operates a 50-kW charger can be obliged to build a 150-kW charger.

Petrol stations play an important role in the expansion of the fast charging infrastructure in Spain: last year, the energy group Iberdrola and the petrol station operator Avia have already agreed to build 500 fast chargers at 100 petrol stations in 2020, while a short while later, Spanish energy provider Endesa concluded an agreement with the petrol station chain Gasexpress. And just this month, the Spanish oil company Repsol announced the expansion of its charging network: 610 fast charging points are to be built at petrol stations in Spain and Portugal. But since these Repsol chargers are 592 50 kW chargers and only 18 HPC connections with 180 kW each, it looks likely that Repsol will have to make adjustments here if the ministerial decree is passed.

euroweeklynews.com, miteco.gob.es (ministerial decree in Spanish)