Spanish utility Iberdrola is leading a consortium researching renewable energy generation and its integration into the electricity distribution grid.

Also participating in the Flexener consortium are Siemens-Gamesa, Ingeteam R&D Europe, Indar, OSI Digital Grid, Balantia and Wallbox. They will also look at storage systems and flexible demand management to ensure an efficient energy transition.

The initiative, which will be carried out between 2021 and 2023 and will have a total budget of €7.6m earmarked entirely for research and development, is part of the Missions programme run by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), an agency of the Spanish Ministry of Science & Innovation.

The project represents a public-private commitment to promoting collaborative R&D that accelerates the fulfilment of objectives relating to the energy transition. It also highlights the need to increase investment in electricity grids above the levels seen over recent decades to enable a green recovery.

Research into grid digitalisation will allow the development of increasingly bi-directional systems to transform the users’ relationship with energy by involving them in consumption that is more autonomous and responsible; more robust, by ensuring the incorporation of more renewables; and more flexible, because the grids incorporate multiple generation points close to the places of consumption.

The project represents an opportunity to promote technologies in areas such as electric vehicles and self-consumption, which are set to play a decisive role in the consolidation of development models such as smart cities.

After investing €120bn over the last two decades, Iberdrola has an installed renewable capacity of more than 35,000MW, making its generation fleet one of the cleanest in the energy sector.

Aware of the potential role electricity grids can play in the transition, Iberdrola has invested €2bn in recent years to digitise eleven million energy meters in Spain and it continues this process in other markets to promote smart grids and ensure the mass incorporation of renewables. By 2025, the company will have installed more than 21 million smart meters in the markets in which it operates.

Iberdrola is developing an investment plan worth €150bn by 2030, which will include €75bn by 2025, through which it plans to triple its renewable capacity and double its network assets and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the energy revolution facing the world’s leading economies. In Spain, these investments amount to around €14.3bn by 2025.