Start-up Plexigrid wins Iberdrola's challenge to optimise grid capacity through data and AI
Iberdrola's global innovation and smart grid centre in Bilbao continues to advance proposals to maximise the potential of smart grids for the electrification of the economy and job creation and contribute to the development of the next generation of these Smart grids.
The distributor of the Iberdrola group, i-DE, had proposed a technological challenge of innovation in smart grids through PERSEO, a platform that aims to facilitate access to the technologies and businesses of the future while fostering a global ecosystem of start-ups with a focus on sustainability. The winner was the Asturian start-up Plexigrid, based in Gijón and Stockholm (Sweden).
On this occasion, and in collaboration with BAT B Accelerator Tower -Bizkaia International Entrepreneurship Centre-, a search and selection process of the best solutions at a global level has been developed. A procedure that has culminated in the framework of the B Acceleration Week, the largest innovation and entrepreneurship event held to date in northern Spain. During the event, I-DE's technical team was able to learn first-hand about 6 of the 30 solutions presented by the different companies participating in the challenge, as well as to exchange knowledge and experiences with other innovative companies in the region.
Plexigrid as selected start-up, will have the opportunity to deploy a pilot test in the framework of the challenge with I-DE, will become part of the BAT Community, and will be invited to participate in a personalized acceleration program to enhance its growth, in the framework of collaboration between Iberdrola and BAT.
The challenge launched through PERSEO consisted of planning new scenarios in the electricity grid, making the most of the available capacity of the digitised grid, using data and AI techniques. Digital solutions were sought to model new demand scenarios (consumption and generation) in the grid with self-consumption, storage and access flexibility, in order to forecast their operational behaviour and, with this, plan their investments, guaranteeing the capacity of the grid, assuming a reasonable demand for electricity distribution, in a horizon of between five and ten years.
Among others, these scenarios should take into account the evolution and geolocation of:
- - Current electricity demand and generation and self-consumption.
- - Electrical storage (domestic, industrial, utility, BESS, etc.).
- - New emerging demands (short term): electric mobility, heating and cooling, decarbonisation of current industrial processes, etc.
- - New demands in the medium and long term: digital electrification, new consumption and generations associated with technological developments and/or emerging business models (e.g. artificial intelligence, e-fuels, green hydrogen, etc...).
GSGIH and Perseo Iberdrola Ventures
The Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub (GSGIH) is a pole of attraction for talent and the promotion of new technologies that will make the energy transition possible, maximising the use of renewables, fully integrating energy storage systems and optimising access to new uses of electricity, such as mobility and air conditioning.
Iberdrola and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, which together with the energy company is promoting this public-private collaborative framework, have so far brought together the capacities of more than 100 industrial companies, universities and technology centres, which contribute their technological capacity, industrial character and research experience.
Iberdrola's commitment to a sustainable energy model is part of its PERSEO programme to promote the development of start-ups and innovative industrial companies working in new areas of electrification.
Since its creation in 2008, PERSEO has invested more than 200 million euros in businesses that develop innovative technologies, focusing on those that improve the sustainability of the energy sector through greater electrification and decarbonisation of the economy. In addition, through Perseo Venture Builder, industrial initiatives are launched in the field of energy transition to create new business models that contribute to electrification in sectors that are difficult to decarbonise.
About BAT B Accelerator Tower and B Acceleration Week
BAT B Accelerator Tower is the spearhead of a country-wide project that aims to put Bizkaia on the international map of entrepreneurship. The backing of the main Basque institutions aims to make BAT B Accelerator Tower a unique centre in the world; capable of bringing together public tools at the service of entrepreneurship and innovation, together with the differential services and international network of PwC and collaborations with international partners such as Talent Garden and Impact Hub. Aiming to be the most important innovation HUB in Southern Europe and the best connected, B Accelerator Tower is a point of concentration and traction of entrepreneurial talent and open innovation, where startups, corporates, investors and administration work together.
The B - Acceleration Week, after its first edition, has positioned itself as the most important entrepreneurship and innovation event held to date in BAT B Accelerator Tower and one of the most important in the national scene. This meeting marked a milestone in the field of start-ups and innovation in the Basque Country.
This has been possible thanks to the collaboration with strategic members of the BAT such as Iberdrola, as well as other international agents such as Pegasus Tech Ventures or Google, which have made it possible to generate a high impact event for the regional ecosystem, in which + 500 participants from + 100 companies and + 30 nationalities have been able to exchange knowledge and generate new opportunities for innovation and business.