The Chairman of Red Eléctrica de España, José Folgado, today presented its recognition awards to energy efficiency projects of 2013 in the Second Edition of the Red Eléctrica eficiente awards, an annual campaign launched to encourage all initiatives of the various areas of Company aimed at reducing consumption of natural resources and CO₂ emissions.

The Red Eléctrica eficiente seal has been up and running for six years to promote the development of good practice regarding the responsible way to use energy in everyday life and of all those projects that collaborate with the challenge of sustainability and energy efficiency as one of the strategic axes of the Company.

Red Eléctrica de España, as the sole transmission agent and electricity system operator, has an important role in the development of a more efficient, sustainable and competitive electricity system and the achievement of the European targets on energy and climate change.

Award winning projects on energy efficiency

In this second edition, Red Eléctrica eficiente has grouped together the seven projects identified in 2013 into three categories: implementation of measures, innovation, and communication and awareness.

In implementation of measures, the recognition was awarded to the CARs project (Agile, Responsible and Safe Driving); a project based on a navigation and geographical location system that, along with the monitoring of fuel consumption, will indicate the most efficient routes and reduce the carbon footprint related to the mobility of people using a company vehicle.

In the innovation category, the recognition was awarded to the PERFILA project, which has created a panel of 20,000 consumers equipped with smart meters. The data collected by these smart meters will be used to introduce improvements in the accuracy of hourly consumption profiles of households and small businesses. These profiles are used in the electricity system to estimate how demand behaves on an hourly basis, information that is necessary for market operation. More precision in the definition of these profiles would result in reduced need for adjustment services in the operation of the system. This project is spearheaded by Red Eléctrica and counts on the participation of Endesa, Iberdrola, Unión Fenosa Distribución, E.ON, EDP Hidrocantábrico Energía, ASEME (Association of Electricity Companies) and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

The third project that received recognition, in this case in the communication and awareness category was the one regarding the installation of energy management systems. These registering and real-time monitoring devices quantify, measure and manage electricity and water consumption, as well as temperature data in office buildings and maintenance centres, with the future aim of making decisions on the implementation of energy efficient consumption measures and comparing the consumption in the different buildings. At present, 41 sets of equipment have been installed and they are all connected and reporting data to a central server.

Other new initiatives identified

Along with the recognised projects, Red Eléctrica eficiente has identified four other initiatives that add to the commitment to energy efficiency. This is the case, in implementation of measures, of the GeoRED project, a geographic information system in a web environment that provides data on geographic locations according to the needs of each department and whose information may be shared with other users.

Similarly, the ECCO project (Collaborative Construction Environment) develops a document management system oriented towards converting the physical documentation generated in procurement processes between the Engineering and Construction units into electronic format, making the process more efficient and sustainable. In 2014, this document manager will expand its functionality, allowing access to the application by external personnel that perform construction works for the Company.

In this same category, the energy management programme at the head offices has managed to implement a lighting control system which has reduced consumption in this area by 21.6% over the past three years. During 2014, this energy management programme will also address the climate control systems.

In the field of innovation, Red Eléctrica researches and develops different initiatives regarding demand-side management through projects related to smart grids, the integration of renewable energies and electric mobility.

Amongst these initiatives, Red Eléctrica eficiente has identified the ALMACENA  project which was put into service in late 2013 at the Carmona substation (Seville) with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This R&D+i project consists of the installation and connection to the transmission grid of a 1 megawatt lithium-ion battery with a storage capacity of 3 megawatt hour, the energy needed to keep more than 55,000 18W light bulbs lit simultaneously for over three hours. The objective of this project is to study the behaviour and viability of these storage systems in their connectivity to the electricity transmission grid.

In addition to the noteworthy projects of 2013, Red Eléctrica continues working on other related initiatives on saving energy and other resources. In this sense, the energy audit programme and the one on measures to improve the efficiency of buildings is maintained. In the past year, new energy management equipment has been installed in 28 work centres, meaning that 65% now already have this equipment, which has represented a 3.37% reduction of electricity consumption compared to 2012.

Moreover, in 2013, the Company made improvements in seven buildings regarding insulation of facades, window glazing and lighting and, and has continued to implement a construction model for new maintenance buildings for the transmission grid that reaches the B energy rating.

Also still running is the technological renovation plan of IT systems and the programme of efficiency measures for existing office computer equipment, the EFEN project, which has already been applied to 90% of this equipment and has achieved energy savings in this area of close to 25%.

Similarly, work continues on the optimisation of water consumption in the head offices and the incorporation of measures in other work centres. These actions also include the reduction of paper usage and storage, through the ADIR project (Archive of Documentation of Grid Facilities), an IT document management system regarding technical and administrative proceedings data of the facilities of the Company, and that in 2013 has incorporated into the system more than 100,000 new documents.

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