The road ahead with Vera Pinto Pereira | edp.com

EDP Group’s Vision and Outlook for 2024

We are on the cusp of an energy revolution that will dramatically improve our daily lives, says Vera Pinto Pereira, member of the Executive Board of Directors, responsible, among others, for the areas of Client Solutions and social impact programs at EDP. The most important thing is to leave no one behind in this paradigm shift toward a more electric world.

As customer expectations and technological trends in the energy sector continue to shift, what initiatives do you have in the pipeline to improve customer experience in 2024?

Meeting the decarbonization targets that the world has agreed to requires structural change in the way we produce, consume, and manage electricity. Today, customers are at the heart of the energy transition, and that means we need to change the way we engage with them. In the past, clients simply consumed energy. Now, they are the ones with the power to electrify the economy—with their electric vehicles and heat pumps—and we need them to make sure that every rooftop, parking lot canopy, and patch of farmland has solar panels producing renewable energy.

This paradigm shift implies transitioning from simple energy products to a complex ecosystem, with frequent and shared daily decisions instead of limited interaction between customer and supplier. It means moving from a portfolio of generic offerings to a seamless and integrated experience that is tailored to each customer’s specific needs.Today, electricity retailers are—and increasingly want to be—sustainability partners, facilitating the customers’ relationship with their energy and helping them manage it efficiently. EDP is no exception. To achieve this vision, our focus has been on digitalizing and automating our customer interactions, strengthening the delivery capacity and quality of our operations, and making sure our communication is even clearer and more transparent. To that end, we are implementing a plan involving more than 60 initiatives that began in 2023 and will continue into 2024. They include, for example, reviewing all our customer communications, implementing a process for digitally signing contracts, and creating a specialized remote technical support team.

What initiatives or programs does EDP plan to implement to address social challenges in 2024? What role will the social impact strategy play in tackling them?

As we ramp up the energy transition, our responsibility is to ensure that it is done fairly and equitably, leaving no one behind. For us, that is more than an ambition. It’s a very clear and tangible goal. That clarity of purpose means that the entire EDP Group is working together with a solid strategy, implemented consistently on a global scale.

In Portugal, the Social Impact Coordination Office (SICO) and EDP Foundation are stepping up projects that help the most vulnerable communities. These include “Solar Solidarity,” which installs solar PV systems in charities; “Energy Inclusion,” which provides energy efficiency solutions to low-income families and individuals throughout the Iberian Peninsula; and the revamped “EDP Energy Solidarity,” which will invest more than €2 million to support innovative social projects that promote a just energy transition in Portugal.

In 2024, these three projects are going to go global—with the help of the EDP Foundation in Spain and the EDP Institute in Brazil—enabling a successful model to be replicated in other countries.

There are other very important projects being implemented by other EDP entities. EDP Renewables, for example, is helping boost employability in rural areas where it operates by training students to work on renewable energy projects. This “Keep It Local” program is being carried out in Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Poland, and throughout North America.

In 2024, we also want to increase investment in just energy transition projects on a global scale. Our aim will be to implement successful programs in even more countries, focusing on issues such as energy inclusion, self-consumption, access to energy, and the democratization of electric mobility.

"Today, electricity retailers are— and increasingly want to be— sustainability partners, facilitating the customers’ relationship with their energy and helping them manage it efficiently."

With a turbulent international environment and soaring inflation, 2023 was another challenging year. What is your assessment of the past year and how do you see those challenges unfolding in 2024?

We live in turbulent times. After three years of pandemic, international conflicts are having a huge impact on the price of raw materials. In the energy sector, they have shown the importance of energy security and independence, as well as the critical need to switch to clean energy. All of it against the backdrop of an increasingly clear sense of global urgency to protect our planet.

Despite our concerns, 2023 has left us hopeful. It was an unprecedented year in terms of how many families and companies decided to take an active role in the energy transition and have more control over the type of energy they consume. Today we see every rooftop, building facade, and parking lot as an opportunity to step up this transition, whether through solar power generation or electric mobility. We are also excited to take on this opportunity because we know we are not alone. Through collective effort and true partnerships, we are increasingly convinced that we will be able to achieve the ambitious goals of transforming our country.

We are confident that we will continue to deliver projects in 2024 that accelerate the energy transition in Portugal and in the other 30 countries where we operate. We are confident that we will bring more families and companies into the energy transition and that we will continue to attract and retain the most qualified professionals to help us on this journey.

We live in turbulent and uncertain times, in a decade that is fraught with challenges—but also hope. We are on the cusp of an energy revolution that will dramatically improve our daily lives.