The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, with the general deputy of Bizkaia, Unai Rementeria

• E l Global Innovation Hub Smartgrid act tractive innovation platform, combining the technological capabilities of the company with suppliers, partners and startups
• Iberdrola has already identified more than 120 innovation projects amounting to 110 million euros
• Some 200 professionals will develop R + D + i, related to the challenges of future networks: digitization, data and response to new consumption models, such as electric mobility and self-consumption

Iberdrola believes that the transition to a new energy model, based on electrification and the incorporation of more renewables, involves accelerating investments in electricity distribution networks. To respond to these challenges and to lead innovation in these essential infrastructures, the company has just launched its Global Smartgrid Innovation Hub; a center that will act as a driving platform for innovation, combining its technological capacity with that of suppliers, collaborators and startups from all over the world.

This is how the President of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, has had the opportunity to explain it, who has shared the progress of the project with the General Deputy of Bizkaia, Unai Rementeria, in a meeting this afternoon at the Distribution Operation Center (COD) of Larraskitu, in Bilbao, where the innovation hub will be located.

The meeting confirmed the opportunity, in this stage of green recovery, to promote cutting-edge projects in new technologies in an area -that of smart grids-, with an extraordinary drag effect on the local industrial fabric, through global innovations that can attract investment and boost the growth of communities.

The innovation hub will start up in the coming months - in the spring of 2021 - and the company has already identified more than 120 innovation projects for its future development worth 110 million euros. The lines of work, of an international scope, will allow the development and deployment of innovative solutions for Iberdrola's electricity grid activity around the world.

The initiative will bring together the innovative potential of more than 200 professionals in the development of R + D + i projects related to the challenges of future electricity networks, including greater digitization, the treatment of the data generated by these infrastructures and the response, in terms of robustness and flexibility, of the electricity grid to new consumption models, such as electric mobility and self-consumption.

The Global Smartgrid Innovation Hub has the collaboration of the Bizkaia Provincial Council, which will facilitate the interaction of the Iberdrola ecosystem with the tax mechanisms for innovation developed by the Foral Institution and the instruments to accelerate the consolidation of startups.

The center will be directly connected to the Biscay Startup Bay strategy, as it will also become a scaleup site for startups in the energy sector that are installed in the Bizkaia Tower.

INVESTMENTS IN R + D + I TO RESPOND TO THE CHALLENGES OF THE GREEN ECONOMY

In the last decade, Iberdrola has increased its annual investment in R & D & i activities, related to renewables, electricity grids, storage and consumer solutions by 115%, reaching nearly 2,000 million euros. This bet places it as the most innovative Spanish energy company and the third in the world.

In the last two years, the company has developed 85 innovation projects, positioning itself as a world leader in the development and implementation of smart grids. 

SMART GRIDS, KEYS TO THE GREEN ECONOMY

The transformation of the networks towards an intelligent, more reliable and safe infrastructure allows us to respond to the challenges of this transition towards an electrification of the economy, with a greater integration of renewables, sustainable mobility, smart cities, decentralized consumption (self-consumption ) and a consumer with greater decision-making capacity and connectivity.

In recent years, the group's distribution companies have deployed nearly 14 million smart meters - I expect to install up to a total of 20 million in the markets where it operates - and have adapted the electrical infrastructure that supports them, to which they have incorporated capabilities remote management, supervision and automation.

The company manages 1.2 million km of power lines and more than 4,400 substations in the world, which distribute electricity to more than 30 million people in the world.

KeyFacts Energy: Iberdrola Energy Spain country profile