27 SIEIL: Electric Leadership Scott Diel Kaupo Kikkas Imagine if your utility union were also an EV cru-sader. That’s how it is in France. SIEIL stands for Syndicat Intercommunal d'énergie d’Indre-et-Loire. It also stands for leader-ship. SIEIL was established in 1937, and it unites 260 cities in France and counts over 500,000 people as its customers. In France, cities own the cables and lines of electrical distribution systems, but SIEIL is the administrative union. Its mission is to monitor the concessionaires of electricity and gas to ensure quality, reliability, and equal access to energy. In addition to its supervisory functions, SIEIL plays a key leadership role in the promotion and use of electric vehicles. It has an annual budget of 40 million euros, more than half of which it invests in technology. Drive Renault, Charge with Ensto Dominique Ménard, SIEIL’s General Director drives a Renault Zoe. Pascal Balpe, the organization’s Technical Director, drives a hybrid. Both charge with Ensto. When it comes to EVs, SIEIL knows what it’s talking about. The company fleet consists of four EVs and nine hybrids. Currently, 200 EV charging points dot the streets of SIEIL’s jurisdiction, France’s 37th Department. Before the beginning of 2016, that number is expected to double to 400 and include two new 50-kW fast charging points. Software SIEIL chose Ensto for a variety of rea-sons, with software of critical impor-tance. SIEIL has ordered software which can connect and monitor 1,000 poles. Using a tablet computer, or even a smart phone, Pascal Balpe is able to monitor the network in real time. “You see who’s charging based on their RFID card, how much electricity they’ve used. If there’s a problem we can react quickly – a maximum time of three hours.” But the chief benefit of the software will be in the future says Balpe. “Now is just the beginning of the story. It’s like Google collecting data. We know where the poles are, what kind of cars are connecting, when and how often. This data has huge value.” The software itself is intuitive and simple to use. “A child can use it,” says Balpe. Aesthetics The two great loves of France, SIEIL General Director Ménard will tell you half jokingly, are wine and paperwork. He means to illustrate how difficult and time consuming the process is of installing a charging pole on a city street in France, cities which are often listed as UNESCO world heritage sites. Ensto poles are aesthetically pleasing enough that they can make it through this rigorous process. continued SIEIL's General Director Dominique Ménard drives a Renault Zoe and charges it at Ensto's EV charging station.
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