Iberdrola Spain's distribution company has produced a guide to facilitate the deployment of energy communities.

i-DE, Iberdrola Spain's distribution company, connects more than 400 collective self-consumption units to its distribution network in the country

• The company's smart grid allows it to act as a technological facilitator and backbone for the deployment of this renewable generation system.
• The company provides customers with different digital channels that allow users to actively participate in the management of their energy.

Iberdrola España's distribution company, i-DE, has connected more than 400 collective self-consumption systems to the grid throughout its distribution area in Spain after doubling the number of applications in one year. This is a system of renewable energy production through a photovoltaic installation shared between several users, who are part of a group of consumers who generate and share electricity from production facilities near their homes with which they have a prior agreement.

i-DE's role is to act as a technological enabler by providing digital tools that enable users to actively participate in optimising consumption and to facilitate the proper integration of renewable energy production from self-consumption and the deployment of energy communities in the electricity distribution grid, a key element in accelerating the energy transition.

The company makes the digital information provided by the smart distribution grid available to shared self-consumption customers, with real and updated data on renewable generation production, real-time hourly consumption curves or power demanded, which will ensure the maximum efficiency of each project and help optimise its costs.

The distribution company has recently published the Collective Self-consumption GuideExternal link, opens in new window.  to guide the electricity installer sector and the promoters of this type of initiative in the technical-administrative processing of the deployment of this type of renewable energy generation throughout the process, as well as to facilitate the deployment of shared self-consumption, which is the pillar on which the energy communities are based.

It is a publication that can be updated, which will incorporate changes and improvements in its content to take into account both the applicable regulatory developments and the different contributions received from users.

Furthermore, i-DE has proposed a series of legislative measures to improve the process, which would substantially facilitate the reduction of timeframes in the processing of self-consumption and speed up the administrative management of applications.

Contribution to the development of self-consumption

Iberdrola España's distribution company has exceeded 150,000 self-consumption installations connected to its grid in the first half of 2023 in its areas of operation in Spain. Together they contribute more than 1,200 megawatts (MW) of renewable generation capacity fully integrated into the distribution grid.