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Iberdrola has signed a Power Purchase Agreement with Uvesco Group (BM Supermarcados) for the supply of electricity produced from renewable sources on a long-term basis.

This makes it the first PPA signed between a power company and a distribution group in Spain.

All of the energy supplied will come from a renewable source: the Nuñez de Balboa solar plant that Iberdrola will be building in Usagre (Badajoz-Extremadura). It is set to be Europe's biggest solar power plant, with a capacity of 391 MW.

This contract will save Euskaltel from releasing over 26,700 tons of CO₂ a year and will mean a step forward in the decarbonisation of the economy.

“PPAs open up new opportunities for the development of energies that will set the standard for the world's energy future. Renewables have proven their competitive advantage and their ability to supply power at affordable and stable prices. In the long-term, PPAs will rise as an instrumental tool in managing the power supply for large consumers who are committed to achieving green and sustainable consumption” explains Ángeles Santamaria, CEO of Iberdrola España.

For his part, José Ramón Fernández de Barrena, Managing Director of Uvesco Group, stressed that “this agreement makes us the leading power company with 100% green energy and will enable us to reduce our environmental footprint, as one of our main commitments to sustainability is precisely to seek alternatives to reduce energy consumption. We are a company that is permanently growing and we forecast that we will continue to enlarge our number of stores and so we have also got to grow towards a more sustainable management of our energy."

Iberdrola's PPAs in Spain, USA and Mexico

The term PPA stands for Power Purchase Agreement and designates long-term power supply agreements that provide stability for investments made by energy providers whilst guaranteeing a reliable supply for major energy consumers at competitive and predictable prices. These arrangements also help them to reach their sustainability and climate change goals thanks to the clean energy certificates associated with PPAs.

Over the past few years, Iberdrola has struck up long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Spain, with Kutxabank and Euskaltel, and in the USA and Mexico. So far, in America they have signed PPAs with U.S. multinationals for over 800 megawatts (MW), including Amazon with a wind farm in North Carolina; Apple with the newly‑built solar and wind power plants in Oregon; and Nike and Google with wind farms in Oregon, Texas and South Dakota.

In Mexico, Iberdrola has built wind farms and solar power plants with an installed power of 600 MW that will be supplying energy to private industrial clients through long‑term PPAs, as well as the clean energy certificates associated with these facilities. 

Iberdrola is the world's prime renewable energy company, boasting an installed capacity of over 29,500 MW, more than 15,800 of which are produced in Spain. After investing more than € 95 billion in clean energy over the past 18 years, this will continue to be one of its key courses of action. In fact, the company expects to invest € 32 billion by 2022, dedicating 37% to renewable projects.

About Iberdrola

Iberdrola is a global energy leader, the number one producer of wind power, and one of the world’s biggest electricity utilities by market capitalisation. The group is present in numerous countries and supplies energy to over 100 million people mainly in Spain, the United Kingdom (Scottish Power), the USA (AVANGRID), Brazil (Neoenergia) and Mexico. With a workforce of 34,000 and assets in excess of €110 billion, it posted revenues of just over €31.26 billion and a net profit of €2.8 billion in 2017.

Iberdrola is leading the transition towards a sustainable energy model through investments in renewable energy, smart grids, large-scale energy storage and digital transformation, offering the most advanced products and services to its customers. Thanks to its commitment to clean energy, Iberdrola is one of the companies with the lowest emissions and an international benchmark for its contribution to the fight against climate change and for the sustainability of the planet. Iberdrola forms part of numerous international sustainability indices, among them the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE 4Good, and is considered one of the most sustainable electricity companies in the world.

About Uvesco

Uvesco Group is one of the leading food distribution companies in the North of the Peninsula. It currently has a network of 220 supermarkets and four big logistics infrastructures that amount to 63,600 square metres, and is present in the Basque Country, Navarra, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid and Ávila. It operates under the trade name BM Supermercados in all the areas it serves and under the trade name SUPER AMARA in Gipuzkoa, and over the last few years has also set up a digital platform through its Online BM store and the BM Shop franchise. It's strategy is based on local supermarkets with an extensive range of quality products, with a strong commitment to local products, with staffed fresh produce sections and specialised training for its store professionals.

This year it predicts it will reach a turnover of 740 million euros, which makes it an economic stakeholder and a job creator in its areas of establishment, where it already has a workforce of over 4,500 employees.

In its commitment to sustainability and within the framework of its distribution business, over the last few years, Uvesco Group has brought in energy saving measures such as introducing 100% electric vans, replacing all its light fittings with led lights, replacing all the refrigeration systems in its supermarkets. On the social side it also has an agreement with the Food Banks, which meets a dual objective: reducing the environmental footprint by significantly reducing the management of food waste and facilitating access to food to those most in need.