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Iberdrola's main growth driver between 2024 and 2026 will be electricity grids. They are the backbone that connects demand, both industrial and domestic, with generation through infrastructures. 

Electrification is unstoppable, both for companies, which must follow their roadmap towards decarbonisation, and for individuals, who are changing their energy models based on fossil energy sources, such as gas, to others based on renewables, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps. Self-consumption and its decentralisation also play a key role in designing electricity grids. 

In this context, Iberdrola, through its startup programme Perseo will promote digital solutions that enable the inclusion of machine learning methods or algorithms in its grids to model new demand and generation scenarios, through self-consumption, storage and access flexibility. The aim is to forecast their operational behaviour and, with this, plan their investments to guarantee this network capacity, assuming a reasonable demand for electricity distribution. 

Iberdrola's potential allies must take into account current electricity generation and self-consumption, electricity storage, new emerging demands, electric mobility, heat pumps and the decarbonisation of current industrial processes, among others. They must also be aware of the new demands in the medium and long term: digital electrification, new consumption and the generations associated with technological developments and emerging business models, such as Artificial Intelligence or green hydrogen.

Those companies that enter the challenge will be eligible for a prize consisting of the signing of a collaboration agreement with Perseo or any other Iberdrola company, which will assume the costs of the activities and provide the winner with technical support. The selected project will be developed in collaboration with technical specialists from Iberdrola's Networks area.

Furthermore, the winner will be directly included in the process of joining the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, as an additional collaborator that will be able to benefit from the services, activities and resources made available at the GSGI Hub. If the trial is successful, Iberdrola could offer the participant the opportunity to scale the solution with commercial agreements. In addition, Perseus may consider investing in the participating company or in the winning solution.

The key to electrification

Iberdrola's plan is to allocate €21.5 billion to networks - two-thirds of the total investment planned from 2024 to 2026 - to increase these assets to €54 billion by the end of 2026 from the current €43 billion. 

The amount previously mentioned will be used to expand and strengthen networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Spain. For the company, electrification is unstoppable, given the need to increase energy self-sufficiency, decarbonisation, efficiency and competitiveness of companies.  

The driver of energy startups

Since its creation in 2008, PERSEO has invested over €200 million in startups that develop innovative technologies and business models, focusing on those that improve the sustainability of the energy sector through greater electrification and decarbonisation of the economy. The programme has focused its actions on the analysing business opportunities and collaboration with tech startups and emerging companies around the world.

Through PERSEO, Iberdrola launched the Venture Builder programme in 2020 with €40 million for the creation of new business models aimed at supporting electrification in sectors that are difficult to decarbonise and the development of circular economy solutions, among others.