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Renewable Energy Operation Centre (CORE) in Spain

Spain's Renewables Operation Centre: a world pioneering project

Informatics Iberdrola projects Renewable energy

The Renewables Operation Centre (CORE) in Toledo controls and operates in real time the operation of Iberdrola's wind, photovoltaic and mini-hydro facilities in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Mexico, Hungary, Romania, Italy, France, Cyprus, Poland, Brazil and Australia. Why this worldwide pioneering project came about and how it has evolved since then.

The Toledo Renewable Energy Operation Centre (CORE)   became operational at the end 2003 to manage the assets of Renovables External link, opens in new window.  subsidiary of the Iberdrola Group, created only a year earlier. Its objective was to improve the technical management and economic performance of the installations in order to increase the quality of the renewable energy supplied.

It began by supervising 29 Spanish wind farms, but very soon it was integrated with electrical substations and hydraulic power plants, as well as other wind facilities installations located in countries such as France, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Germany. Today, the centre operates from Toledo more than 300 wind farm installations, photovoltaic plants, electrical substations and batteries located in eleven countries.  It monitors over 3,000,000 data items in real time and controls over 13 GW of active power.

The Toledo CORE was the first facility of its kind to be put into operation anywhere in the world and became an international technological benchmark. During its 20 years of operation, it has undergone constant evolution and has been the forerunner of new applications and progress in the planning, operation and maintenance of wind farms. The company has exported the Spanish model to other countries where it has developed renewable energy control centres. This is the case of the centres in Portland (United States) in 2010, Whitleee (Scotland) in 2011, Río de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2019 and in 2021 a fifth centre that manages the hydroelectric plants in El Montalvo (Spain), the COHI, Centro de Operación de Hidraúlica. 

Innovation in renewables

We innovate to improve the efficiency of our renewable assets.

CORE in USA

National Control Center: the most advanced control center in the USA

CORE in the UK

Renewable operation centre in the UK.

CORE in Brazil

Iberdrola's most modern control centre in the world.

What CORE Spain does

The CORE in Toledo centralises the supervision and remote operation of renewable facilities, enabling:

Remote incident management: a specialised team provides real-time support to maximise plant availability and efficiency

Centralised information management: information is handled in a unified manner, optimising maintenance

Adaptation to regulatory changes: advanced energy control functions are integrated to respond to new regulations