Iberdrola España invests 100 million euros in the redesign of the electricity grid affected by the DANA

• The CEO of Iberdrola España, Mario Ruiz-Tagle, has presented in Valencia together with the i-DE team the il.lumina project for the construction of a network of the future.
• The different actions to be developed require the participation of 1,000 workers from contractor companies, most of whom will be from the area.
• The infrastructures will incorporate resilience measures and include the latest digitalization standards that will benefit 650,000 customers.

Iberdrola España has presented in Valencia the il.lumina project, in which it will invest 100 million euros to redesign the electrical distribution network affected by the DANA on October 29th in the province. The CEO of Iberdrola España, Mario Ruiz-Tagle, accompanied by Eva Mancera, the CEO of i-DE, Iberdrola España's distribution company, has detailed the company's investment plan as well as the actions undertaken so far. 

In the words of Mario Ruiz-Tagle, “although the company, despite the enormous difficulties, was able to restore practically the entire electricity supply in less than 72 hours, at this time it is a priority to look to the future and to have an even more efficient distribution network”. For the Iberdrola España executive, “the agile performance of the more than 500 workers mobilized from different parts of Spain and the investment in grid technology made in recent years were decisive in those exceptional circumstances”.

Guillermo Raga, Mario Ruiz-Tagle, Eva Mancera and Ignacio García Bosch (from left to right) during the ceremony

The company has now created a team of 35 people who are dedicated exclusively to the il.lumina project, which is divided into five operational areas under the same management and has seven support areas to coordinate the work of the approximately 1,000 workers from contractor companies that will be required, most of whom will be locally based. The creation of a department dedicated exclusively to this plan is allowing i-DE to continue developing the rest of its investments in the Valencian Community normally.

Regarding the execution period, Iberdrola España has already started at the end of 2024 with the different phases of the project with the recovery of the 132 kilovolt (kV) high voltage infrastructure in the area of Catadau and Carlet and has already gathered all the necessary material to be able to develop it, both in the section of transformation centers and low and medium voltage network, as well as in the substations. The forecast is to reach 90% of the project's execution in 2025 and to finish throughout 2026.

Resilience measures

Eva Mancera also emphasized that the supply was recovered in record time after the floods thanks to human and technical resources. She added that this new grid “will be even more robust and resilient, prepared for extreme phenomena that may occur in the future and will be implemented in a few months thanks to the creation of a specific project team that will allow i-DE to continue developing the rest of its investments in the Valencia region”.

In order to be able to carry out the construction of an electrical distribution network of the future, the company is going to incorporate resilience measures to the infrastructures that entail design changes in the assets and will provide them with the latest digitalization standards that will benefit 650,000 customers, all in coordination with the actions that the different public administrations will carry out.

The level of automation of the facilities will be increased and new intelligent transformers (i-trafo) will be incorporated, which will increase the quality of supply, and overhead power lines will be buried, as well as transformer substations will be raised and compacted.

In order to minimize the inconvenience in the municipalities where work is already being carried out, i-DE has introduced improvements in the programmed cut-off notices and is implementing special measures such as the installation of generators and night work. 

In addition, the agreement between the company and the Generalitat Valenciana, through the Department of Innovation and Industry, continues to be in force, through which the company is collaborating with the Valencian Metallurgical Business Federation (FEMEVAL) to send brigades of electrical installers to the buildings and private homes affected by the hurricane, who are responsible for the revision and repair of the electrical installations and the checking of the electrical panels, as well as with the needs that may arise in the different town councils with the restoration of the public lighting service.

Quick action

The drought that occurred on October 29th in the province of Valencia caused approximately 180,000 customers to be without electricity supply in the areas of l'Horta Sud, Catadau-Carlet and Requena-Utiel-Buñol. From the outset, i-DE mobilized approximately 500 people from both the Valencia region and other regions in the rest of Spain, including its own personnel and contractors, to restore the service and repair the affected installations as access was possible.

Ignacio Galán, Chairman of the Iberdrola Group, and Mario Ruiz-Tagle visit Valencia after the floods.

On the first day, more than 200 people (own and contractor companies) travelled from outside the province of Valencia to provide support both in field work and to reinforce and relieve the staff operating the control centers, which were cut off from communication.

The rapid action and the mobilization by the company of all the resources at its disposal, including the installation of more than 120 generators, made it possible to recover approximately half of the affected electricity supply in just 24 hours, 85% within 48 hours and in just over 72 hours practically everything had been restored.