I-DE, Iberdrola España's distribution company, connects 28,000 self-consumption installations in the Region of Murcia
- In cooperation with Aremur and FREMM, Iberdrola España's distribution company has organised a technical seminar on the paperwork involved in connecting these facilities to the grid.
- Guillermo Raga, i-DE director in the Eastern Region, highlighted the significant increase in group self-consumption, which this year accounted for 12% of connections.
I-DE, the distributor of Iberdrola España, has reached 28,000 self-consumption installations connected to its electricity grid in the Region of Murcia, and in a single year has gone from 50 group installations to more than 900, which contribute a total of 350 MW of photovoltaic generation fully integrated into the low and medium voltage grids.
The company has organised a technical session aimed at professionals in the sector, in collaboration with the Murcia Renewable Energy and Energy Saving Association (Aremur) and the Regional Federation of Metal Companies of Murcia (FREMM), to offer information on how group self-consumption files are processed through the administration to connect to the i-DE grid, as well as changes in the criteria for linking installations associated with making new connections.
The distribution company has also informed of the Group Self-consumption Guide for the electricity installer industry and the promoters of this type of initiative in the technical as well as administrative processing of the deployment of this 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.
Francisco Espín, president of Aremur, Javier Ríos, president of the Murcia Regional Electricity Installers Guild, and Guillermo Raga, i-DE director in the Eastern Region, took part in the conference, which is the result of an agreement signed between i-DE, Aremur and FREMM.
Guillermo Raga wanted to highlight the evolution of the connection of self-consumption installations in the Region, "where it has gone from 4,000 installations at the end of 2021 to today’s 28,000, and also highlight the evolution over the last year in the form of group self-consumption, which has gone from 50 to more than 900 and this year has accounted for 12% of all connections".
The i-DE’s director in the Eastern Region stressed that as a distribution company "we are convinced that self-consumption is necessary for the energy transition and that is why we are facilitating connections and working together with the other agents involved to make the process as agile and streamlined as possible".
Francisco Espín assured that the renewable energy business association "supports and promotes all photovoltaic companies that can operate with maximum efficiency to manage the development of collective self-consumption facilities".
Javier Ríos stressed the importance of deciding with maximum clarity in meeting forums "the processes because in the end, installers and distributors, we all work together and we need productive coordination".
Clean energy through grids
I-DE is immersed in a process of transforming the electricity distribution grid that is providing more information to implement additional energy efficiency and sustainability measures in a way that is committed to ambitious and urgent climate action. The deployment of the smart grid makes it possible to respond to new models of grid use and offer the public better service.
In the Region of Murcia, i-DE manages more than 30,000 kilometres of power lines. It also has 9,700 transformation centres in service and more than 70 substations. In recent years, the company has undertaken an ambitious plan to digitise its electricity grids in the region, where it has converted its more than 900,000 meters and the infrastructure behind them into smart meters, incorporating remote management, supervision and automation capabilities.