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 -Published Thursday, October 3, 2019- First Lady announces the project to electrify buses in the country By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Wednesday the first lady, Claudia Dobles, announced the beginning of the process for the use of electric buses in the country. "The government works through coordination of its institutions on actions for the use of electric buses," said the first lady. "We are supporting the operators to find the conditions in electrical infrastructure and the tariff for the Electricity charge on its bus station facilities." According to the Institute of Electricity, studies are under way to develop the basic electrical infrastructure in the bus station of the operators. Operators are the firms in charge of the electric bus lines. "The basic infrastructure refers to the distribution network, transformers and smart measurement, which will be implemented according to the needs and location of each operator's site," said the Institute in its statement. Also, the Public Services Regulatory Authority, known as ARESEP, is working to establish the electric rate for charging electric buses that will be available nationwide. The rate is expected to be defined in 2020. The incorporation of electric bus lines in the country is part of the National Decarbonization Plan that is being developed by the government. In June 2018, the Costa Rica USA Foundation for Cooperation, know as CRUSA, announced the pilot plan of public electric buses. According to the foundation, three electric buses, known as e-buses, will be circulating on national roads this year, as a result of a project kicked off with the signing of a partnership between Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Transportation , the German development cooperation agency GIZ, CRUSA, and the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP. "The buses and their respective charging stations will be brought into the country thanks to a €2.5 million donation from the German government and $1 million from CRUSA, with the aim of helping the country in its anti-climate change efforts, as one of the actions proposed for sustainable urban mobility," said the foundation in its statement. The signing partnership signals the start of the technical definition of the operating structure, through a public-private consortium, selection of the participating concessionaire or concessionaires, the routes and technology to be used by the buses, and the design of one or several financial instruments for promoting electric bus use in public service routes. “This project is vitally important to CRUSA for the positive impact it will have on the quality of life of Costa Ricans," said David Gutierrez, president of CRUSA. "Our 2018-2022 programming strategy approaches on initiatives with considerable scalability potential, the electrification of the public bus transportation system being one of the priorities and challenges our country faces for achieving carbon neutrality and substantial improvement of the country well-being. ” According to CRUSA, the project will evaluate how well the new e-buses perform with the reality of local roads and will base itself on best international practices and lessons learned from the implementation of this type of technology in public transportation. ------------------------ Have you seen any electric buses circulating in your community? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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