IBERDROLA has awarded seven companies contracts to supply one million meters with remote management capabilities, to advance its smart grid projects in Spain.
– As part of the STAR project for the roll-out of smart grids, with an overall investment of €2,000 million by 2018
– The company has selected seven manufacturers to supply the new devices, which it will be installing in various autonomous regions IBERDROLA will be investing some €2,000 million by 2018 on setting up its electricity grid of the future
IBERDROLA has awarded seven companies contracts to supply one million meters with remote management capabilities, to advance its smart grid projects in Spain.
This award, for the total amount of €300 million, follows others made by the company in the last two years, to roll out this new distribution technology in our country.
The companies chosen by IBERDROLA to supply these devices are ZIV, Landis&GYR, Sagemcom, Sogecam, Orbis, Elster and GE.
Having successfully completed the first stage of the STAR project (Spanish acronym for Remote Grid Management and Automation System) in Castellón, where 100,000 meterswere changed,, IBERDROLA has started to extend roll-out to all of the regions where it has an electricity distribution grid.
In the Basque Country, the highlight is the initiative the company is engaged in with the Basque Government, via the Basque Energy Entity (EVE), based in the province of Biscay. This project involves the adaptation of over 1,100 transformation centres and renovation of some 230,000 meters.
Another project worthy of note is PRICE, in which the company is involved along with other partners. This project will consist of the replacement of some 200,000 smart meters (100,000 by IBERDROLA) and the refurbishment of 1,600 transformation centres in the Henares Corridor in the Madrid region, as well as in Guadalajara.
IBERDROLA is also making progress in transforming and modernising its electricity distribution grid in other regions, such as Murcia, Extremadura, Castile-La Mancha and the Valencia region.
This initiative, which will be completed in the year 2018, will require an overall investment in Spain of some €2,000 million, which will go towards replacing 10.3 million traditional meters with the new smart devices and towards adapting some 80,000 transformation centres, which will be equipped with remote management, supervision and automation capabilities.
As well as the initiatives it is carrying out in Spain, IBERDROLA is also about to complete its first smart grid projects in the United States, where it has installed over 550,000 smart meter devices, and in Scotland, where 30,000 customers in Glasgow will benefit from this new technology.
Advantages of smart grids
Some of the main advantages of smart grids are the integration of distributed generation, the possibility of rolling out electric vehicles on a mass scale and improved efficiency in electricity consumption. In this latter area, they will allow for the remote provision of services, such as real-time meter-readings, processing contract registrations and cancellations or altering the capacity under contract.
The company will also be able to supervise the electricity grid and detect any kind of anomalies: whether the voltage is correct, whether the power is balanced or whether there are losses. This information will enable the energy to circulate more efficiently and lead to an improvement in the quality of supply, as there will be a drop in the number of exceptions and their duration.