Endesa invests nearly €1bn to digitalise Catalonia’s grid

Between 2023-2025, Spanish utility Endesa will invest €994 million ($983.5 million) in Catalonia’s grid to make it smarter and more digital.

The nearly €1 billion investment also aims to deploy renewable energies, facilitate Catalonia’s energy transition and continue improving the quality of the service received by the company’s 4.4 million customers in the region.

Through its distribution subsidiary, e-distribución, Endesa plans to carry out nearly 1,300 projects throughout Catalonia, aimed at improving the digitalisation, reliability, resilience, flexibility and efficiency of Endesa’s extensive distribution grid in Catalonia, which represents 39% of the company’s capacity in the region.

The actions will focus mainly on any axes that make it possible to continue digitising Catalonia’s grid, guaranteeing its robustness and resilience, facilitating access to renewables, improving the quality and continuity of supply and preparing the infrastructures for the increase in demand as a result of electrification (expected to increase by about 7,500MWh within three years).

The plan

The investment was planned after prioritising the region’s most immediate requirements, while being aware of the crucial role played by the distribution grid on individual quality of life, since it allows electricity to reach homes, industries and services, connecting transport networks and generation plants with consumption points.

Specifically, Endesa plans to act directly on more than 11,100km of high, medium and low voltage lines, with a particular focus on the investment effort in low voltage, which stands at almost 189.3 million euros. The company foresees improvements in more than 4,700km of low-voltage cables between 2023 and 2025.

Executing these actions is expected to generate more than 2,900 jobs, direct and indirect, at a rate of about 960 jobs per year.

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In the period 2023-2025, Endesa plans to install nearly 15,000 remote controls throughout Catalonia, to exceed 33,000 within three years and continue the deployment launched in recent years.

In addition, new line switches will be installed and act automatically in the event of incidents in the grid, in order to isolate the damaged sections and restore the supply in the shortest possible time.

Another key element in this transformation is the sensorisation of the transformation centres, which consists of monitoring the status of transformers and low-voltage grids, so as to observe and analyse the performance of parameters such as voltages and temperatures in order to control their correct operation and achieve preventive and predictive digital management of these assets.

According to Endesa, first deployed in 2018, this initiative has been in gradual crescendo. During the next triennium, Endesa plans to install around 27,800 across Catalonia, to reach approximately 50,200 by 2025.

Digitalisation, therefore, extends throughout the entire infrastructure of the distribution grid, from its systems and processes to the customer service channels. By using it, the focus is on improving the quality of supply to customers, so that supply disruptions and incident response times are reduced, whether they are their own or derived from external agents.

It also leverages the potential of big data and artificial intelligence to improve operations in an increasingly data-driven decision-making process.

 The projects underway include the Network Digital Twin, an exact replica of the assets with which simulations can be carried out in all possible conditions. This digital twin opens the door to data-driven network management, real-time control of the operation of different components, preventive maintenance and more efficient interaction with field personnel.

Regarding Catalonia’s grid and electricity operations, Endesa has 45,669 transformation centres, 208 substations, 126 distribution centres and 98,910km of power lines (low, medium and high voltage) distributed in the region.

The investments, worked together and approved by the Generalitat of Catalonia, are in addition to the €263.7 million ($260.9 million) that Endesa is already allocating this year to the distribution grid within the framework of the current triennium (2021-23).