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Boxes of masks donated by Endesa
- The donation, worth around €600,000, is one of the initiatives in the company’s €25-million Public Responsibility Plan to supply materials, services, equipment and infrastructure to fight Covid-19.
- This initiative is an addition to existing efforts which include electrification of field hospitals, free power for medicalised hotels, not cutting off residential customers due to non-payment, and offering more flexible conditions to SMEs, the self-employed and families in need.
Endesa has donated 376,000 FFP2 masks worth around €600,000 to Caritas, the Altius Foundation and various Spanish regions in order to protect vulnerable people, especially seniors. The company had already donated two million surgical masks, which reached health services and several regions a few days ago to help deal with the unprecedented health emergency caused by COVID-19.
Both initiatives are part of the company’s €25-million Public Responsibility Plan to assist with supplies of materials and offer special supply conditions, as well as making donations to address the main healthcare and social challenges caused by the health crisis.
The company will also support public service teams (including local police, military emergency units, civil protection) by providing materials, vehicles and services to tackle this pandemic.
Actions already underway
This is one of several initiatives that the company has launched in the past few days. For example, Endesa has donated 100 top-of-the-range General Electric Healthcare ventilators to the regional governments of Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia. It has taken urgent action to electrify facilities converted into field hospitals, and has established special operations to safeguard their electricity supplies. The company is also providing free electricity and gas to medicalised hotels that are helping to alleviate the health crisis, and to Hall 7 at Fira de Barcelona, which has been fitted out to shelter homeless people.
Endesa has also donated a total of €2.5 million to the regional governments of Madrid and Catalonia, these areas being the hardest-hit by COVID-19, to step up their fight against the pandemic.
It donated €500,000 to the 'Cruz Roja Responde' programme to support 25,000 Spanish families in vulnerable situations due to the current health, social and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.
This programme run by the social integration arm of the Red Cross helps to meet basic needs and supports those who need it most. Endesa employees are invited to contribute to this Red Cross programme by making micro-donations through a website that was created especially in response to requests from staff wishing to make personal contributions to the company's global efforts.
Endesa has donated €200,000 to the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) to support research projects currently underway to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, this will help to fund two projects being carried out at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC). The first seeks to identify antiviral drugs to be tested in subsequent clinical trials, while the second aims to develop new antibody detection tests.
The company has also donated €300,000 to Catalonia’s Food Bank to stock up on basic products during the pandemic and upgrade its fleet with electric and hybrid vehicles when the confinement ends.
In a further effort to help, residential customers who are unable to pay their bills will not be cut off, and more flexible payment terms are being offered to SMEs, the self-employed and families in need. The company is also enabling telematic alternatives so that no one has to leave home to interact with Endesa, making case-by-case analyses of its business customer requests, ensuring immediate payments to service providers in the customer services and sales areas, and making donations to local hospitals near the company’s plants.
Endesa has also strengthened operations at its distribution control and energy control centres and at generation plants to ensure a reliable electricity supply in the regions where it operates (Aragon, Andalucia and part of Extremadura, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Catalonia, Galicia, and Castile and Leon). It has also doubled the capacity of its renewable generation control centre, located in Madrid, with a mirror centre in Santiago de Compostela.
Once the health problem has been overcome, which is now the most pressing issue, Endesa is considering other measures to mitigate the effects that the economic crisis will have on its most vulnerable customers.
Endesa Foundation
Endesa, through its Foundation, is already committed to helping the most vulnerable groups it works with and alleviating the effects of the crisis on those most in need. Now, in collaboration with the Foundation's organisations and partners, Endesa will provide Cáritas with €270,000, the SAFA Foundation in Andalusia with €270,000 for families, and the Integra Foundation with €45,000. Within the Retotech programme, the printers donated to schools and colleges are being used to make face shields for health workers and aid organisations. Last Thursday, 2,000 units were delivered to the IFEMA hospital, and they are being manufactured at a rate of one thousand per day.
Implementation of the Action Plan
The first phase of the Action Plan will provide immediate and urgent aid in three areas:
- Donations of materials and services Endesa is using its logistics and procurement capacity at home and abroad, as well as qualified personnel and the necessary means to obtain:
- Protective equipment for healthcare workers and public service personnel (masks and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- Supplies for treating hospitalised patients (ventilators, radiological equipment, etc.).
- Special energy supply conditions for hospitals and medicalised hotels. Endesa has placed its capacity to power health facilities at the disposal of public services.
- Equipment and personnel to provide a secure electrical supply in field hospitals and medicalised hotels (generators, increased power, repairs, etc.).
- Free supply during the state of alarm to medicalised hotels that are Endesa customers
- Financial donations to institutions, organisations and health centres to help cover previously identified urgent basic needs.
The Endesa Action Plan is one of several initiatives that the Enel Group is implementing to deal with the emergency in the countries where it operates, offering specific support to authorities and communities while acting to ensure the continuity of the service.