Iberdrola España participates in a conference with companies from Castellón on the il·lumina plan to redesign the electricity grid affected by the cold drop
- Ignacio García Bosch, head of the Iberdrola España project, took part in the conference held at Espaitec (UJI) called 'Building to Resist: Innovation in the Face of Extreme Weather Events'
- The company is investing €100M in the construction of a future-proof grid in the area, incorporating resilience measures and the latest digitalisation standards
Ignacio García Bosch, head of Iberdrola España's il·lumina plan, took part in the Innotransfer conference 'Building to Resist: Innovation in the Face of Extreme Weather Events' held at Espaitec (UJI), which brought together academic experts, tech companies and institutional representatives to present prediction, prevention and management solutions that contribute to strengthening the area’s resilience.
During his speech, García Bosch explained the project being developed by Iberdrola España to redesign the infrastructure damaged by the cold drop, in which the company is investing €85M to build a grid for the future that incorporates resilience measures and includes the latest digitisation standards.
The il·lumina plan is leading to changes in facility design, as well as the use of innovative technology that will benefit more than 650,000 users by providing a more robust grid that is better prepared for possible future adverse weather events.
‘Since we launched the project, we’ve already completed more than 80% of it, and have cleaned and renovated more than 500 transformer stations and built more than 350 medium-voltage pylons that were affected, and we’re doing work on around 20 transformer substations, some of which involve raising them more than a metre and a half above their current height’, said the head of the il·lumina plan.
García Bosch stressed that, to meet the challenge, ‘Iberdrola España has created a specific team of 35 people who are working exclusively on the project, which involves the participation of approximately 1,000 people from contractors, the vast majority of which are local. We’re also working with companies from Castellón, such as Obremo, part of Nealis, which are helping us to move forward with the redesign of the grid affected by the cold drop’.
The il·lumina plan lead also wanted to highlight that during the cold drop that occurred more than a year ago, company employees in the province worked on the initial restoration of the power supply and to repair the affected facilities and that, despite the complexity and demands of the project underway, ‘to date, the work being done is on schedule and our objective of reaching 90% completion by the end of the year and finishing in 2026 hasn’t changed’.
