News
-
15/11/2019Iberdrola steps up its commitment to clean energy with over 400 new photovoltaic MW in Extremadura Iberdrola steps up its commitment to clean energy with over 400 new photovoltaic MW, which the company is to put into operation in Extremadura. Two of the projects, the Majada Alta and Santa Antonio photovoltaic plants, of 50 MW each, will be built in the municipality of Cedillo in Cáceres. The company also has for a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of more than 300 MW in the same area, with access to the grid. The two Cedillo plants, already presented to the Extremaduran Regional Government, will comprise 300,000 photovoltaic panels, and the construction phase could mean work for 200 people. It is scheduled to be commissioned in 2020. Iberdrola foresees that another of its projects in the region, the Campo Arañuelo complex (Arañuelo I, II and III of 150 MW) will be the next to commence construction at the beginning of 2020. Its development -which could create another 200 jobs during construction- has a high local involvement since the engineering and environmental work has been awarded to the Extremaduran company Ecoenergías del Guadiana and the power transformers will be supplied by Faramax. The project also includes an energy storage system involving the use of an innovative battery. More than 2,500 renewable MW under construction or in the pipeline in Spain In Extremadura, Iberdrola is building the Núñez de Balboa PV plant—the largest under construction in Europe—and has in the pipeline, together with the Cedillo projects, the photovoltaic plants Francisco Pizarro (590 MW), located in Torrecillas de la Tiesa; Ceclavín (328 MW), in Alcántara; and Arenales (150 MW), in Cáceres, as well as Campo Arañuelo I, II and III (150 MW), in the Almaraz administrative district. This brings the company's photovoltaic megawatts under construction or in the pipeline in the region to 1,800, making Extremadura the focus of Iberdrola's renewable strategy in Spain. In Spain, projects under construction or in the pipeline, both wind power and photovoltaic, amount to over 2,500 MW -representing more than 80% of the installed capacity forecast by the company for 2022- in regions like Extremadura, Castille-La Mancha, Navarre, Aragon, Andalusia, Murcia and Cantabria. The plan to relaunch clean energy continues to advance with the recent acquisition of three wind farms, with a total installed capacity of 117.8 MW: the BaCa (Ballestas and Casetona) wind farm complex, in operation, and the Puylobo wind farm, at the construction stage. Plan to relaunch clean energy in Spain Iberdrola's plan to invest in renewable energies in Spain includes the installation of 3,000 new MW by 2022. By 2030, company forecasts point to the installation of 10,000 new MW. These actions will enable jobs to be created for 20,000 people. In Spain, Iberdrola is the leader in renewable energies, with an installed capacity of 15,828 MW (over 30,300 MW worldwide), making its generation fleet one of the cleanest in the energy sector. Iberdrola's commitment to a decarbonised economic model has led it to earmark 34 billion euros for global investments between now and 2022 in renewable energies, smart and robust distribution networks, and storage technologies, all on top of the 100 billion it has already invested since 2001. READ MORE
-
13/11/2019Ignacio Galán, National Innovation Award Winner 2019 The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has awarded the National Innovation Award in the Innovative Career category to Iberdrola Group chairman Ignacio Galán. The jury recognised Galán’s leadership skills in the innovative transformation of companies in different technological sectors. The jury was particularly impressed by his leadership of Spain's energy transition by pioneering the implementation of renewable energies and positioning the Spanish electricity industry among the most competitive and ground-breaking in the world. The National Awards for Innovation and Design set out to acknowledge people and organisations that have made innovation a key aspect of their professional strategy and business growth. Specifically, the Innovative Career modality distinguishes entrepreneurs and professionals with a career of at least 10 years in which innovation has been a relevant characteristic. In 2015, the company received a National Innovation and Design award in the Internationalisation category in recognition of its world leadership in renewable energies. READ MORE
-
11/11/2019Iberdrola announces a partnership to accelerate digitization of secondary substations Iberdrola along with seven industry partners — Intel, Ariadna Grid, Circutor, Landis+Gyr, Merytronic, Nebbiolo Technologies, ZIV Automation — announce collaboration on the definition and development of a Secondary Substation Platform (SSP) reference architecture based on Intel technologies using virtualization for monitoring, control and edge analytics. Today global utilities are required to distribute power via secondary substations at the lowest cost to consumers and businesses. Secondary substations however are often challenged by having to operate with multiple implementations of legacy equipment across multiple vendors. Some legacy devices are digital while others can be electromechanical each with its own unique hardware and firmware. Addressing this complexity combined with increasing penetration of distributed energy resources requires a whole new approach. The goal of the SSP reference architecture is to accelerate the creation of a standards-based, open, interoperable, and secure architecture that addresses both the technical and business challenges faced by utilities around the globe. Designed to enable lower CAPEX and OPEX as well as faster time to market for utilities by digitalizing the secondary substations, the flexibility provided by virtualization on a common platform also makes it easier to deploy new technologies at the edge to address the use cases as their need emerges. The envisioned reference architecture is vital to increase visibility at the edge, making the grid data driven and mitigating the challenges created by the increasing penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER). Targeting to intercept the digitalization in the utility industry, Iberdrola will support the pilot program to validate hardware and end to end solution, accelerating the digital transformation of the utility business. READ MORE
-
11/11/2019Iberdrola, the first Spanish company to obtain this AENOR certificate for its Tax Compliance System Iberdrola has become the first Spanish company to obtain the AENOR certificate for its Tax Compliance Management System in accordance with the requirements established in the UNE 19602 standard. This certification, which is aligned with the Spanish standard and with recommendations from the OECD, focuses on the establishment and supervision of fiscal policies and strategies, basic guidelines for their management and decisions on matters of strategic importance as well as on the design of the Iberdrola Group fiscal management and control system. This morning, AENOR CEO, Rafael García Meiro, handed over the certificate to Iberdrola Chairman, Ignacio Galán, during an event held at the company's offices in Madrid. Galán has indicated that “it is highly satisfying to be the first Spanish company to receive this certificate, which confirms Iberdrola's role as a benchmark for corporate governance and good tax practices, maintaining a culture of responsible compliance and transparency in the field of tax information”. For his part, García Meiro pointed out that Iberdrola has demonstrated an effective and positive commitment to the values shared by society: "Our auditors verified its conscientious and rigorous work in numerous fields and I feel proud that our stamp gives all Iberdrola's stakeholders confidence regarding its work". The Spanish UNE 19602 standard, which relates to Tax Compliant Management Systems, was approved in February this year as a response to the increasing importance given to corporate social responsibility and takes into account that the level of compliance in tax obligations is considered to be one of the main risks affecting all organisations This standard defines a number of requirements and recommendations for tax compliance. In this way it helps companies to implement a management system that facilitates the identification, prevention and detection of fiscal risks, in order to avoid or mitigate complementary settlements, penalties or crimes against the Public Treasury and, in the event that they occur, create control and mitigation mechanisms. The UNE 19602 standard also facilitates transparency when dealing with the tax administration and ethical compliance in an organisation's relations with the public administrations, whether state, regional or local. READ MORE
-
06/11/2019Ferrovial, Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias and Obra Social ‘la Caixa’, receive the 3rd Iberdrola International Energy Cooperation Awards Today, Iberdrola and the Sustainability Excellence Club announced the winners of the third edition of the Iberdrola International Energy Cooperation Awards at an event held at the company's headquarters in Madrid. The winners chosen from the latest group of candidates are Ferrovial, in the Private Sector: Large Company and SME category, while the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias won the Public Sector: Administration and Public Companies category and Obra Social ‘la Caixa’ was the winner of the Tertiary Sector: no profit and non-governmental bodies category, with a special mention for Fundación EKI in this area. The awards were handed out by the State Secretary for International Cooperation and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, and Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Galán, accompanied by the director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aeacid), Aina Calvo, and the secretary general of the Sustainable Excellence Club, Juan Alfaro. After congratulating the winners, Galán said that “all the projects submitted in this call for entries are evidence of the global benefits of understanding and teamwork by companies, governments and civil society to solve global problems, such as the fight against climate change and universal access to energy”. According to the president of Iberdrola, the award-winners “embody all the qualities and attitudes necessary to guarantee access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy services for everyone on this planet. Their initiatives are the result of expertise coupled with the imagination necessary to find truly innovative solutions. In other words, they are the pinnacle of technical excellence, seasoned with idealism. They also show that solidarity should be at the heart of long-lasting empowerment to make a difference. And finally, they prove that cooperation is always the best way to connect good intentions”. Ignacio Galán ended by pointing out that “the number of people living without electricity has fallen by 40% since 2000, but there are still almost 900 million people without power. Hence Iberdrola’s long-standing commitment to driving activities that foster the use of modern forms of energy, with environmentally sustainable, economically affordable and socially inclusive models. The Iberdrola International Energy Cooperation Awards aim to draw attention to outstanding initiatives carried out by companies, public authorities and the tertiary sector that show an active commitment to universal access to energy. All this contributes to achieving the 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) under the UN 2030 Agenda, in particular goal 7.1, which aims at achieving universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services. More than 75 Spanish and global organisations have presented their candidatures in the three editions held to date. The winning projects The jury decided to acknowledge the work done by Ferrovial in the business category. The accolade was accepted by Juan Francisco Polo, the company’s Corporate Communication and Responsibility director, for its Water - Energy Binomial project. This initiative sought to rebuild peace in El Salado, Colombia, an area to which 200 families decided to return to reclaim their land. As part of its international infrastructures cooperation programme, and in collaboration with Ayuda en Acción and the Fundación Semana, Ferrovial helped to restore and lengthen an aqueduct and to install a solar photovoltaic pump system that guarantees a constant supply of water to 1,200 people. Carolina Darias San Sebastián, Minister of the Economy, Knowledge and Employment at the Government of the Canaries accepted the award as president of the Board of Directors of the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias, the winner of the Public Sector category, for the Clima-RISK project (Adaptation to climate change, prevention and risk management), a technical and institutional cooperation initiative between Canaries and Mauritania, Senegal and Cape Verde to strengthen logistical and management capacities and risk management expertise to respond to environmental catastrophes in these African countries. The Clima-RISK project has a budget of around 2.5 million euros until 2020, 85% of which is jointly financed by the European Commission’s Interreg MAC 2014-2020 programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It is notable that the actions, studies and technological developments can be extrapolated to any region of the world affected by or at risk of natural disasters caused by climate change. The Work4Progress project by Obra Social ‘la Caixa’ promotes transport micro-companies using tricycles or rickshaws and won the Tertiary Sector category. These e-rickshaws are powered by electrical energy and led and driven by women who offer services to other women and children. They are quieter, cheaper to maintain than the traditional models that use fossil fuels, and help to reduce pollution by lowering CO2 emissions. Ariadna Bartholet, director of International Programmes for Fundación Bancaria ‘la Caixa’, accepted the award. In this category, the jury wanted to make special mention of the Fundación EKI, which supplies, finances and installs photovoltaic solar systems for schools and health centres in Sub-Saharan Africa, in line with the SDG. The facilities are funded by 20-year, interest-free loans. EKI uses a scalable model whereby beneficiaries are responsible for the durability of the equipment. All facilities are monitored from the Foundation’s headquarters in Getxo. The Chairman of the Board, Jose María Galíndez Zubiría accepted the award. READ MORE
-
04/11/2019Ignacio Galán is awarded the Premio León, by El Español, for Best Business Management 2019 The chairman of Iberdrola has been recognised in the 2019 Premios Los Leones (Lions' Prizes) — awarded annually by the digital newspaper El Español — for the success of his business management, as well as for his long and successful professional career. In his own words he said he was accepting this honour on behalf of everyone he has worked with from his early days through to the present day and gave special thanks to the support from Iberdrola's human team, “without whom it would not have been possible to reach the position we hold in the world today.” During the award ceremony, Pedro J. Ramírez, chairman of El Español, praised Galán as a figurehead and emphasised his leadership in the “decisive process of the energy transition towards a sustainable ecosystem through investment in clean energy, using smart grids and large-scale energy storage.” He also made reference to the fact that he has been a visionary in the field of renewable energy in Spain and has succeeded in putting Iberdrola in second place in the IBEX 35 ranking and made it a world leader in clean energy. At the event, the chairman of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi, called Galán a “universal Spaniard” and highlighted how his management has brought people, the environment and financial sustainability to the fore, by seeking to create teams oriented towards a common goal. “A task based on values and that seeks sustainability and fights climate change”, as well as his “total commitment to society.” Other prize winners were Francisco Luzón, ex-banker, founder and chairman of the Foundation bearing his name, and women's sport in Spain, at a gala held in the Spanish Olympic Committee's Auditorium in Madrid. READ MORE
-
30/10/2019Record €4.72 billion investments push Iberdrola’s net profit to €2.51 billion in the first nine months of 2019, up 20.4% Iberdrola posted €2.516 billion net profit in the first nine months of 2019, representing an increase of 20.4% relative to the same period of last year. This positive progression is largely due to the record investments undertaken by the group between January and September: €4.727 billion, 29.7% more than in the first nine months of 2018. Commenting on the results, Ignacio Galán, group Chairman, highlighted “the acceleration of investments and the early achievement of our efficiency and asset turnover targets for 2022. These achievements provide us additional room for new investments, creating a virtuous circle of growth and financial strength,” added Galán. Of the total €4.727 billion invested, the largest amount in the group’s history for a nine-month period, 87% was for the Networks and Renewables businesses, in line with the Group’s Strategic Outlook and with its commitment to a sustainable model. Approximately half of all investments (€2.22 billion) were in new renewable capacity, an increase of 81% against the same period of last year, and 40% (€1.89 billion) in Networks, an increase above 20%. These investments will enable Iberdrola to achieve its target of installing 13,000 new megawatts (MW) in the period 2018 to 2022. In just two years, the group has commissioned more than half of that amount and by the end of 2019 the company will have installed 5,218 new MW, increasing its capacity by 11% in just one year. Positive business performance: EBITDA up by 11.6% The group’s gross operating profit (EBITDA) was €7.498 billion, 11.6% more than in the same period of 2018. This positive result was primarily due to the good performance in Networks, and Generation and Supply, which more than offset the impact of lower hydroelectric output in Spain in the Renewables business. Specifically, the Networks business posted €3.94 billion EBITDA for the first nine months, 8.2% more than in the same period of last year. Of the total figure, 68% came from outside Spain and 50% was concentrated in Brazil and the United States, due to the positive revision of tariffs and lower costs in both countries from previous years. Generation and Supply also performed well, posting €1.81 billion EBITDA, up 37.1% from the same period of 2018. In this area, the contributions of Spain and Mexico stood out, having both increased capacity and production during the period. The Renewables business posted €1.67 billion EBITDA which represents a 4.5% decrease from the first nine months of last year. This result was primarily due to lower hydroelectric production in Spain. In contrast, the increased contribution of the UK featured prominently, with the East Anglia One offshore wind farm coming on stream. Renewable production also increased by 53.5% in Mexico and, at Iberdrola Energía Internacional[1], the positive performance of Wikinger offshore wind farm in Germany boosted production by 53%. Improved financial strength Iberdrola has managed to carry out its €3.5 billion asset rotation plan for the 2018-2022 period three years ahead of schedule. This follows the sale of a minority stake in East Anglia One for €1.7 billion, after the group had previously divested conventional generation assets in the UK (€700 million) and other non-strategic assets in Spain and the US. Asset rotation, together with positive cash flow which amounted to €5.28 billion (+10.8%), has led to further strengthening of credit ratios: net debt to EBITDA has improved by 40 basis points to 3.5 times, and the ratio of operating cash flow to net debt has increased by 120 basis points to 22.2%. Iberdrola has also reaffirmed its leading position in green financing, carrying out transactions for €4 billion in the first nine months of the year and becoming the private sector company with the largest amount of green bonds in circulation. More dividend and double-digit growth for 2019 The results obtained in the first nine months of the year reflect the success of Iberdrola’s model for sustainable value creation: the acceleration of capital expenditure to drive the energy transition generates an increase in cash flows which strengthens the company’s financial solidity, so that the group can continue to invest in growth. Against this background, the group has announced a new edition of its Iberdrola Flexible Remuneration programme, which involves a 10.6% increase in the interim dividend for 2019 to €0.167 gross per share to be paid on 5 February 2020. The complementary dividend envisaged for July 2020 will also be added to this amount. In parallel, the figures presented today allow the company to confirm its full-year guidance: net profit for 2019 is expected to show double-digit growth. [1] This company brings together the businesses previously referred to as Rest of the World (ROW). READ MORE
-
29/10/2019Iberdrola is promoting its digital transformation during the Digital Summit 2019 This week, Iberdrola is once again demonstrating its firm commitment to the digital transformation , a process to which it plans to allocate 4.8 billion euros between 2018 and 2022, by holding the fifth company Digital Summit in its Training Campus , in San Agustín del Guadalix (Madrid). In relation to this meeting, which will be attended by 320 employees from eight countries, the group's chairman, Ignacio Galán, has assured that “being more digital is an obligation for Iberdrola. Digitalisation is not only a great opportunity to create value, but it will play an essential role in the energy transformation, through the electrification of the economy, and it will help us strengthen our leadership and commitment to the fight against climate change". Similarly, Galán has pointed out that the relationship between the digital process and the energy sector "is a two-way street, given that the advantages of digitalisation will not be possible without a really reliable energy infrastructure to provide the electricity required". This is the reason, he explained, why "all the Iberdrola generation facilities are now being managed through automated systems". In addition, the chairman stressed that "in the field of networks we are now able to operate the lines remotely and in real time and the use of Big Data is allowing us to offer customers new and innovative services". It should be noted that, within its digitalisation plan, Iberdrola has set itself the goal of carrying out 75 innovation projects per year, with the aim of continuing to lead this process. Currently, the company ranks as the most innovative Spanish utility and the third most innovative in the world, according to a European Commission ranking. The company will also continue to support disruptive ideas in the energy sector through its 70 million euro PERSEO - Startups Program . The aim of this initiative — into which 60 million euros has been invested for over more than a decade — is to facilitate Iberdrola's access to the technologies of the future and to promote the creation and development of a global and dynamic ecosystem of technology companies and entrepreneurs in the electricity sector. Also this year, and in order to continue to capture the best ideas on the market, Iberdrola has launched two Startups Challenges on its website. In the first, Resilience to natural disasters , 131 startups from 24 countries submitted 148 proposals. The second, Cleaning photovoltaic panels , has received 74 proposals from 70 startups from 25 countries. First level speakers: Amazon, Spotify, Libelium, IBM, etc. In addition to Iberdrola executives, headed by Chief Information Officer (CIO), Fernando Lucero, the fifth company Digital Summit will see directors from other leading technology companies taking part, who will share the best digitalisation practices in their respective fields of action. They will include Tiffani Bova, Growth and Innovation Evangelist with Salesforce; Spotify Sales Director for Spain, Rodrigo González; Jaime del Valle, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at L'Oréal; the CEO and founder of Libelium, Alicia Asín; Chuck Ames, the user experience manager at Amazon; the chief transformation officer with Iberia, Gabriel Perdiguero; and Ricardo Klatovsky, IBM's global vice president for sales and loyalty for the energy, environmental and utilities industry. Iberdrola has, for the second time as part of a Digital Summit, issued a Call for Ideas, which has had twice as many submissions as the previous call: 207 proposals related to sustainability, process efficiency and improving the customer experience, in which disruptive technologies are applied in some way. It is planned that the best of these ideas will be chosen during the meeting. In addition, the company's digital summit will host two round tables, one on Sustainable Cities and Communities and the other called Tech4Good, which will address issues related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as air quality and technology as a tool for social transformation. It is worth recalling Iberdrola's firm commitment to compliance with the SDGs . The company focuses its efforts on the supply of affordable and clean energy (Goal 7) and on climate action (Goal 13) whilst also contributing directly to ensuring clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), increasing its investment in R&D activities (Goal 9), promoting respect for the life of terrestrial ecosystems (Goal 15) and working to establish partnerships to achieve the goals (Goal 17). READ MORE
