Iberdrola on the search for solutions to increase the resilience of electricity grids faced with extreme weather events

BAT B Accelerator Tower in Bilbao, a benchmark centre for corporate innovation and entrepreneurship in Bizkaia, held its international event B Acceleration Week, which aims to create meeting points and partnerships between the local corporate ecosystem with entrepreneurs in the area, as well as startups with innovative solutions at a global level.

Under this framework, with the presence of the main corporations in Bizkaia, the participation of more than 100 startups and more than 300 guests, Iberdrola disclosed the new challenge focused on electricity grids and aimed at startups.

This challenge aims to improve the resilience of the distribution grid, anticipating extreme weather events and minimising their impact on customers through the use of advanced computing techniques. It does so through its PERSEO programme, which seeks to facilitate the Group’s access to the technologies of the future while fostering the development of a global ecosystem of startups in the electricity industry with a focus on sustainability. This tool was created to introduce innovation at the company through various programmes and facilitate its potential application in tangible business cases that add significant value for Iberdrola and its stakeholders. 

Interested start-ups can submit their proposals until 15 September and the winner will be announced on 20 November. The winner will carry out a trial and/or proof of concept to validate the solution in a real environment, may join the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub – Iberdrola's global smart grid centre based in Bilbao – as a partner and PERSEO may consider investing in the participating company and/or in the challenge’s winning solution.

Iberdrola is today the world’s leading wind power producer, the first European electricity company in terms of market capitalisation and one of the two largest in the world. It is a company that is committed to the energy transition with a sustainable business model based on renewable energies, smart grids, large-scale energy storage and digital transformation to offer its customers the most advanced products and services.

Today, Iberdrola is the private energy company that invests the most in R&D&I in the world, with a clear commitment to innovation as a key strategic variable for the development and evolution of all of its businesses and activities. This long-standing strategic vision has enabled the company to anticipate the current energy transition by 20 years to face the challenges of climate change and the need to offer a cleaner, more reliable and smart business model.

Enlit Bilbao 2025

The winner will be announced during the European Enlit event in Bilbao from 18 to 20 November.

Enlit is a global forum dedicated to addressing all aspects of the energy transition. Enlit Europe is the main event of the year and its location changes around the continent. In 2022, it was held in Frankfurt, in 2023, in Paris, in 2024 it was held in Milan, and in 2025 it will be held in November in Bilbao. Iberdrola and the Basque institutions have played a key role in making this year’s event take place in the capital of Bizkaia.

PERSEO Iberdrola Ventures, 15 years innovating with startups and industrial businesses

PERSEO is part of Iberdrola’s commitment to a sustainable energy model. This programme promotes the development of startups and innovative industrial companies working in new areas that accelerate the energy industry’s electrification and sustainability.

Since its creation in 2008, PERSEO has invested more than €1.2B in businesses developing innovative technologies, with a focus on those that will improve the sustainability of the energy industry through further electrification and decarbonisation of the economy.

Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub

Located in Bilbao, the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, sponsored by Iberdrola in partnership with the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, is consolidating its position as a world benchmark for innovation and knowledge in smart grids to respond to the challenges of the energy transition. It also acts as a driving force for innovation, combining Iberdrola’s technological capacity with the more than 100 partnering organisations and companies integrated into the Hub.

The initiative brings together the innovative potential of more than 200 professionals in the development of R&D&I projects related to some of the challenges of the electricity grids of the future: greater digitalisation, the processing of the data generated by those infrastructures and their response, and electric mobility and self-consumption.

About BAT (B Accelerator Tower)

BAT, or B Accelerator Tower, is the spearhead of a national project that aims to put Bizkaia on the international entrepreneurship map. 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 work 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 meeting point and driver of entrepreneurial talent and open innovation, where startups, corporates, investors and the public administration work together.