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 Director of CORE Spain. Video voice transcription (Spanish version) [PDF] External link, opens in new window.
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.
What CORE Spain does
Of the main functions of the CORE in Toledo the following are worth highlighting:
To remotely address incidents
A specialized team made up of operators, engineers and IT experts gives remote support to any incident that occurs at the facilities connected to the centre. It thus achieves an increase in the plant's availability and improves staff management.
It centralises all the operation information
A centralized and homogeneous management allows for the improvement of maintenance processes.
It incorporates new energy control functions
The objective is that the system adapts to the regulatory changes.
