4 November 2015
On the 3rd and 4th November, the Environment and Hydraulic Works Department of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa held its fifth ENERGY workshop at the Koldo Mitxelena Kulturnea, in San Sebastián. The aim of the event was to look into aspects that are of concern to the society such as: energy poverty, energy efficiency and the initiatives carried out in this field, the electricity bill, distributed generation and auto-consumption and self-sufficient buildings.
Unai Castro, researcher from Orkestra’s Energy Department, made a presentation concerning the evolution of electricity networks of the future. During his presentation he spoke about factors that have driven the larger electricity firms to work towards electricity networks of the future, also known as Smart Grids. As Unai Castro pointed out, the challenge of the electricity sector is “to provide electricity in a sustainable, affordable and reliable manner in the context of rapid global growth. It is necessary that the electricity networks of the future evolve so that these types of technologies: improve the quality of the supply, drive the economy, boost technological development, integrate the distributed generation, and facilitate the active participation of the consumer”.
The development of smart networks means advancing in new business models that are closer to the final consumer, and even though progress has been made in innovation and in the industrial field, the regulatory difficulties and the lack of access to funding proves to be a barrier. As stated in the study “Smart energy: new applications and business models”, in which Unai Castro has participated together with The Boston Consulting Group, in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, “new business models are being developed in the electricity sector under the term smart energy, which covers technologies, applications and services that facilitate a more active “prosumer” role; promoting the evolution of the electricity sector towards a smarter generation and consumer model with the consequent benefit that this leads to for territorial competitiveness and the final consumer”.
In Spain, the development of these networks is somewhat incipient, although firms in the sector, as discussed at the conference on Smart Grids which was held on the 7-8 October, have the necessary capacities for their development. Unai highlighted that in order to eliminate the existing uncertainties regarding the management and retribution of smart grids, it is necessary, in the near future, “to carry out orderly regulatory development at a national level, keeping in mind the recommendations and obligations established at the European level and facilitate access to funding”.
The presentations that took place during the workshop ENERGY can be downloaded here.
Additionally, the video of Unai’s presentation (in Basque) can be seen here.
