Renewables Leader Iberdrola Launches Startup Challenge to Identify & Reduce Non-Technical Energy Losses

The Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub

This International Startup Challenge is launched within the framework of the new Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub. Iberdrola will make the Hub a worldwide smart grid benchmark through open collaboration and co-working between i-DE technicians, suppliers, startups, and organizations from all around the world.

Having successfully completed several International Startup Challenges, Iberdrola constantly seeks innovative solutions to address the challenges the world’s leading economies face.

Iberdrola has already identified more than 120 projects for future development with a value of €110 million. The lines of work, which are international in scope, will enable the development and deployment of innovative solutions for the activity of Iberdrola Networks throughout the world.

Why Identifying & Reducing Non-Technical Energy Losses Matters

Iberdrola has over 1.1 million kilometers of electricity transmission and distribution lines spread throughout the United States, Brazil, the UK, and Spain. This network comprises over 4,400 high- to medium-voltage substations and more than 1.5 million medium- to low-voltage distribution transformers built and operated to provide a high-quality and reliable service to a total of 31 million electricity supply points.

The electricity system, of which Iberdrola’s networks are a part, is subject to energy losses that must be correctly identified, categorized, and accounted for to avoid additional costs for end customers and society at large. These losses are normally divided into two types, technical losses, caused in the network installations by the operation of the system itself, and non-technical losses, mainly due to fraud, such as illegal connections and meter tampering.

Are you up for the Challenge?

To identify non-technical losses in its areas of influence, Iberdrola has several mechanisms in place based on the Group’s accumulated experience and knowledge. However, there are areas of the network, particularly in Brazil, where the challenge of detecting and reducing network losses is especially troublesome and energy losses raise up to 15% of produced energy.

By installing smart meters, network sensors, and other actions like the regularization of clandestine connections, the company has succeeded in reducing losses significantly, but it is still on the lookout for additional mechanisms that will allow it to further improve in this area.

In this context, the challenge is to find innovative solutions for identifying and reducing non-technical losses, particularly in Brazil. Iberdrola is looking for proposals for new devices and tools that allow identifying areas with significant non-technical losses, thereby helping the company to reduce overall system energy losses and increasing the success rate of inspection visits.

As an example, some of the areas to explore could be:

• Identification of meter fraud and other anomalies
• Identification of clandestine connections
• Assessment of energy balances
• … and others

What happens if you win the Challenge?

Candidates taking part in this Challenge may be individuals or entities. By winning the challenges, candidates stand the chance to:

• Sign a collaboration agreement with Iberdrola
• Add your solutions to Iberdrola’s service territory and companies within the group
• Scale your solution through commercial agreements facilitated by Iberdrola
• Receive an opportunity for investment by PERSEO, Iberdrola’s risk capital vehicle

Apply by 24 November 2021!

All proposals will be analyzed based on criteria of reliability and scalability of the solution, whether it is hardware-based, software-based or the combination of both, its ease of installation and maintenance as well as the total cost (both initial and recurring) for the solution. The pilot project will commence in 2022.

Use your chance & apply by 24 November 2021!

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