'Electricity for all' programme

Today, there are calculated to be around 600 million people with no access to essential power services, which negatively influences their quality of life and opportunities for development.

With the Electricity for all programme, we are responding to the call made by the international community to bring universal access to modern forms of power, with provision models that are environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially inclusive, linking its purpose with SDG 7. Affordable and clean energy. The Electricity for all programme aims to ensure access to electricity in emerging and developing countries, as well as vulnerable people in developed countries.

This ambitious initiative is centered on performing sustainable electrification actions, so we take advantage of our technical, logistical, organisational and financial capacity.

Electricity for all has four lines of action:

•  Financing projects through investment in capital
•  Activities carried out by the businesses in the countries where Iberdrola has a presence
•  Development of projects with a high social component, through NGOs and corporate volunteering.
•  Giving Access to vulnerable people in developed countries, through different agreements and projects to help vulnerable clients.

From the launch of the Electricity for all programme in January 2014, until the end of 2025, we have contributed to 15.99 million people benefiting from access to electricity through projects carried out in different countries in Latin America and Africa.

 SEE INFOGRAPHIC: 'Electricity for all' Programme [PDF] External link, opens in new window.

Light for all (Brazil)

"The right to live in the country with dignity." This phrase, from Julinda dos Santos, Biquinha, is a good representation of the Light for All programme being undertaken by Neoenergia^* in conjunction with the Federal Government of Brazil to promote universal access to electricity in rural areas.

Biquinha is one of the millions of people who have benefited from this programme since its implementation in 2004. The initiative, with the firm purpose of eradicating energy poverty and improving the quality of life of Brazilian communities in rural areas and remote regions of the Legal Amazon, has already operated in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Tupinambá.

When the programme reached its first 20 years in 2023, it had already brought electricity to 3.6 million households, benefiting around 17.2 million people and becoming one of the world's most ambitious electricity inclusion programmes. To achieve this, it has installed numerous poles, medium and low-voltage lines and transformers, enabling the operation of community services that are so essential, such as primary schools.

Lights of hope (Mexico)

Nearly 270,000 homes in Mexico did not have access to electricity in 2020, according to the Population and Housing Census of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

During our years of activity in the North American country, we partnered with Iluméxico to launch the Luces de Esperanza project. The initiative succeeded in bringing electricity to 60 rural communities in the country, in the states of San Luis Potosí and Oaxaca, through the installation of solar panels in homes, schools, health centres and community spaces. The programme, which was implemented in two phases, involved an investment of 60 million Mexican pesos and benefited around 12,000 people..

San Luis Potosí

The first phase took place in 2019, when Lights of Hope reached communities in Huasteca Potosina External link, opens in new window. (San Luis Potosí), where 48 homes and three community centres were identified. In the second phase, a hundred homes External link, opens in new window. and four community spaces will be electrified in 36 communities of five other locations.

Oaxaca

In 2020, Iberdrola's collaboration reached the municipality of Pochutla External link, opens in new window., near the Oaxaca coast, to install 95 pieces of equipment that provide solar energy to homes in nine communities, benefiting 380 people. In 2022, more than 400 people benefited and 115 homes were electrified in the state of Oaxaca.

In these communities, environmental education and energy generation workshops were also delivered to children and adults, in partnership with the organisation ConcentrArte, and community activities were carried out to strengthen social cohesion.

The progress of the programme's outcomes was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the agency responsible for integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which documented its contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda.

Iberdrola with the refugees

Iberdrola has joined the first public-private partnership set up to bring electricity to the refugee camps, Alianza ShireEnlace externo, se abre en ventana nueva. , which promotes the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. This initiative is particularly connected to goal 7, which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; and goal 17, which aims to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Thanks to its commitment to SDG 17, Alianza Shire has been honoured in the go!ODS Awards, organised by the Spanish Global Compact Network — the biggest initiative backed by the United Nations to progress towards private sector sustainability — and the Rafael del Pino Foundation.