Iberdrola invested €170 million in the area of Research and Development (R&D) in 2014, a 7% increase over the previous financial year. The company allocated most of this investment to the development of projects involving smart grids, clean generation, offshore wind power, and new technologies and business models.

Thanks to its ongoing commitment to remaining at the forefront and its effort in seeking out new opportunities in the energy sector, Iberdrola has been acknowledged as the most innovative Spanish utility and the fifth most innovative in Europe, according to a ranking drawn up by the European Commission.

The company's unwavering commitment to R&D is also reflected in its support to technology-based entrepreneurs and companies through the Perseo venture capital scheme, which has been allocated a budget of €70 million. This scheme has enabled Iberdrola to invest over €48 million since 2008 on technological start-ups that ensure the future sustainability of the energy model.

Some of the initiatives backed by the Perseo venture capital fund in 2014 include the acquisition of a stake in the capital of Silicon Valley company QBotix, which develops robotic technology for renewable generation facilities, and the launch of the Open Innovation Ventures programme with a view to collaborating with Iberdrola's technology providers. The first step taken in this programme was to set up GDES Tech4Services, an agreement between Iberdrola and its technology partner the Dominguis Group for the development of new operation and maintenance technologies in the electricity sector.

Renewable energies

In the area of renewable energies, the group carried out various projects in the last year to design solutions geared towards bringing down costs in the offshore wind power sector, where Iberdrola is a reference as the first Spanish company to commission a facility of this kind: the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom.

Some of the most important of these initiatives are the LOW IMPACT gravity foundations project, the Leawind offshore technologies project and the various lines of action of the ambitious OWA (Offshore Wind Accelerator) programme headed by the Carbon Trust in the United Kingdom.

In Scotland, Iberdrola has commenced fatigue tests on offshore piles for calcareous soils, with a view to optimising design and ensuring lasting stability. It also took part in the TLPWind project, which aims to design a state-of-the-art floating wind turbine model and an innovative system to promote the installation of offshore wind farms in areas of the United Kingdom where they are not currently feasible for reasons related to water depth.

The company has also launched the European Best Path project, which aims to demonstrate how new technologies promote the integration of renewable energies in European grids, and the Smartwind project involving research on storage models and technology simulations associated to wind farms. 

Smart grids

The Group's R&D activity in the area of electricity distribution has focused on optimising the distribution network, with a special emphasis on occupational safety, environmental aspects and enhancing quality of supply.

Iberdrola is firmly committed to developing smart grids and has various projects underway in all the countries where it has electricity distribution operations. In Europe, the company is spearheading the UPGRID project, which seeks to reinforce its capacity as an integrator of active demand and distributed generation in the low voltage grid. It is also continuing its work on the IGREENGrid project, developing precise methodologies to integrate renewable energies into electricity distribution networks, as well as collaborating with DISCERN, which compares various grid intelligence solutions and looks for the most optimised architecture models. 

In Spain, Iberdrola is involved in the Price project, which aims to meet needs identified for developing a smart grid within a safe, efficient and sustainable framework. It has also completed the Tabon (developing a technology for inspecting and checking power lines), Matusalen (developing a tool to detect wear in medium voltage cables contained in underground power lines) and Silectric (promoting new insulators for overhead power lines) projects.

Along the same lines, in Scotland the Group is carrying out various projects to promote smart grids, such as ARC, geared towards speeding up the process of connecting renewable energies to the distribution network, and Flexnet, which aims to develop solutions and technologies designed to enhance and increase grid capacity. 

In Brazil, Iberdrola is working on innovations in inspecting distribution networks, such as the Vants and Robo projects for installation in underground networks in cities in order to reduce the impact of overhead power lines. 

In the United States, the flagship project is the Integrated Aerial Damage Assessment System, which plans to develop an overhead system for assessing damage caused to the electricity grid after major storms.

Finally, Iberdrola has an R&D centre of technology specialising in smart grids in Qatar. Along with the Qatari state electricity utility, Kahramaa, Iberdrola is continuing the process of defining and rolling out a pilot project featuring smart grids. 

Clean generation technologies

In 2014, the efforts made in the area of generation focused on improving flexibility and operational efficiency, respect for the environment and enhancing safety at facilities.

Some projects of note include Filtraciones (Filtrations), geared towards developing a new methodology for efficient inspections in water canals; and the Insroca, Siro and Ecrigen initiatives, in which experimental prototypes were developed as well as new methodologies to help guarantee the structural integrity of generation assets and maximise their life cycle.

With a view towards reducing the environmental impact at its generation plants, Iberdrola in 2014 also completed the Desox project (at the Lada thermal power plant, to boost performance at the desulphurisation plant and use the plaster generated in this process) and the Coeben-II project (at the Velilla del Río Carrión thermal power plant, to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx).

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