• Grid2030 aims to anticipate the future challenges faced by the transmission agent and system operator.
• The event was attended by the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, and the Chairman of Red Eléctrica, Jordi Sevilla.

Red Eléctrica de España will invest two million euros in its Grid2030 innovation programme, an initiative launched a year ago that seeks to promote the development of technological proposals applied to the transmission grid and system operation.

The goal is to identify and help bring to fruition projects that respond to the great challenges currently facing the electricity system, promoting the development of disruptive technological solutions capable of accelerating the energy transition.

The programme, open to entrepreneurs and innovators from public and private entities, universities, research centres, and companies around the world, already has two winning consortiums as a result of its first call for proposals. The consortiums will have the financial support and backing of Red Eléctrica with a total of approximately one million euros.

In this regard, the Company, this morning, has held an event in Madrid in which the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, and Red Eléctrica’s Chairman, Jordi Sevilla, took part. During the event the two selected projects were presented, and two new challenges have been launched for the second call, which will also be funded with a total of one million euros.

During his speech, Pedro Duque stressed that Spain is a leader in the field of energy in the current European Horizon 2020 programme, which includes projects regarding energy efficiency, smart cities, waste management and circular economy, among others. Mr. Duque also pointed out that in order to maintain this leadership position, cutting-edge engineering and energy industries are needed, as well as companies such as Red Eléctrica, which are committed to R&D+i.

In turn, Red Eléctrica’ Chairman, Jordi Sevilla, stated that the Company has innovation in its DNA, not only because since its creation in 1985 it became the first TSO in Europe, but because every year it earmarks more than 10 million euros for innovation activities related to electrical energy technology and its digitalisation. In addition, the Company currently has a pioneering control centre of renewable energies of reference worldwide.

Finalist projects

In the first call for proposals, focused on promoting solutions aimed at accelerating the implementation of power electronics in the electricity system and developing new resources to provide it with flexibility, 79 proposals were submitted from 10 different countries: Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Colombia (in a European consortium) and Poland.

Finally, after an intense evaluation process, two projects were selected:

• Flexible Smart Transformer (FST) presented by the consortium between Centro tecnológico CIRCE and EFACEC Alta Tensión (Spain/Portugal). FST consists of the design, development and testing of a new power electronics device based on silicon carbide semiconductors, with multiple possible applications as a transformer and an AC to DC converter and vice versa, with active control and new functionalities.
• Reduced Inertia Transient Stability Enhancement (RITSE) presented by the consortium between Instituto IMDEA and SuperGrid Institute (Spain/France). RITSE consists of two complementary and coordinated control systems to improve transient stability in electricity systems: DVAC (Dynamic Virtual Admittance Control), with HVDC links; and BATTERTIA (Battery Grid Interface for Improved Transient Stability), with batteries.

The second call for proposals, which begins today, focuses on two new challenges: improving knowledge regarding the physical state of electricity transmission infrastructure and identifying new technologies and digital services for the energy transition, including the development of new services for the TSO and measures to increase the efficiency of their management.

The deadline for applications is open until 13 February 2019 and two workshops are planned to be held between April and May, so that the selection can be made in June and the projects can commence in the final quarter of the year.

Both the structure of the programme and the technological challenges have been jointly defined with InnoEnergy, an entity that promotes innovation in sustainable energy in Europe and which contributes its experience in the management of innovation support programmes and in the transformation of the results of these projects into products and services.

With Grid2030, a pioneering programme in Spain, Red Eléctrica and InnoEnergy team up to explore socio-economic and technical innovations related to both the electricity system operation and the transmission of electricity and that will support the development and early commercialisation of applications based on cutting-edge technology, thus accelerating their deployment and maturity through the participation of different companies and industries.

With this initiative, Red Eléctrica responds to its innovation strategy, which aims to achieve a position of international reference in this field, anticipating the future of electricity systems and accelerating the development of technological solutions that could represent a significant positive impact on the Company’s activity and improvements for its stakeholders and for society as a whole.

More information about the Grid2030 programme on the Red Eléctrica de España website.

The Press Office of Red Eléctrica publishes all written and audio-visual information via the Twitter account @RedElectricaREE. Also, on Facebook through the account RedElectricaREE.