Trend of Key Indicators - Efacec

investment will be around USD 180 million and about 250
jobs will be created in 2010, growing to approximately
600 jobs in the long-term.
I must point out in this message the importance that
I consider the Research & Development and Innovation
(RDI) component has on Efacec's plan of action.
As I mentioned, this component has been earmarked as a
very important factor of competitiveness. In 2009 alone,
Efacec invested around EUR 14 million in R&D, about
EUR 6 million of which originated from NSRF incentives.
The company currently has about 150 staff exclusively
assigned to Research, Development and Innovation
activities in various businesses.
Efacec is a party to several cooperation agreements and
a member of various business and sector associations,
besides taking part in several Knowledge Networks and
Partnerships.
Efacec is also strongly connected to the Education,
Science and Technology system. It has established
partnerships with Schools, Higher Education Institutes
and the most prestigious Universities at national and
international level, focusing on the Engineering and
Management areas.
In its organisation Efacec created and developed the
area of Integrated Management of Innovation, Quality
and Sustainable Development, which has proven to be
important in achieving the company's goals.
All this effort by Efacec in the RDI areas has been
recognised by various entities and several prizes have
been awarded to Efacec, which I will speak of further on.
I further highlight, for example, two projects that Efacec
is involved in and which typify its performance, not only
because of the highly technical nature but also as a
demonstration of its current and future concern for the
sustainability of our planet.
Electric mobility (known in the abbreviated form of
MobiE), a new paradigm tied to new models of energy
and environmental sustainability, is an area that
combines a number of competencies and merges various
technological domains, particularly in terms of electrical
and electronic equipment and systems, information and
communication systems, product engineering and other
areas.
Due to the domestic industry’s mobilisation efforts in this
area – benefi ting from government institutional support
and the technical support of EDP Inovação, Efacec and
other Portuguese companies, INTELI, CEIIA, Critical
Software and Novabase have taken the initiative to
establish a reference framework to develop and deploy
a complete solution for an electric mobility supply and
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support infrastructure that is 100% national.
The simple fact that an electric vehicle has to be charged
almost every day, and therefore needs to be plugged in
to the electricity grid for long or short periods of time,
depending on whether it is slow or fast charging, involves
management of the electric network and management
by the user, so that both may take full advantage of this
situation.
Hence, the supply infrastructure can not just simply
make the electric network available to supply points. It
requires more sophisticated and intelligent equipment
that is endowed with communication capabilities, it
requires sophisticated fast charging equipment capable
of adapting to different manufacturers and vehicle types.
It implies that the management of the electricity grid
accommodates this process and makes best use of the
vehicles that are connected and requires management
systems that offer maximum convenience to citizens and
ensure the normal functioning of the market.
All these areas come under the natural business activity
of Efacec. Therefore, we cooperated with other partners
to develop an entire architecture capable of permitting
the implementation of a network in Portugal that is
among the most advanced worldwide, within the period
defi ned by the government prior to the sale of vehicles in
our country. We also believe that this system has great
export potential.
The second example concerns another technology project
that Efacec participates in and which, as in the previous
case, aims to meet the latest energy and environmental
challenges.
EDP Distribuição, in its capacity of Network Operator,
initiated a strategic innovation project in partnership
with Efacec, INESC Porto, Janz and Edinfor&Lógica CMG
Company, with the ultimate aim of establishing a new
intelligent electricity distribution system that is capable
of responding to the challenges that the sector will face
in coming decades.
It is the InovGrid project - the evolution of the Distribution
Network as a decisive response to the new challenges in
the electricity sector and which essentially encompass the
differentiation and modulation of demand, an approach
focused on consumers, the liberalisation of the markets,
greater supply security and the upgrade of networks and
their operation.
There is also a complementary vision of using the scale
and scope of the InovGrid Project to boost national