The €15 million project carried out under the European Commission’s Sixth Research Framework Programme was spearheaded by Iberdrola in collaboration with important partners such as ZIV, Electricité de France, National Grid, REE, Gamesa, Siemens, Areva and Tecnalia.
The project involved starting up a large scale virtual electricity plant responsible for managing several distributed energy resources and has demonstrated the viability of their integration with conventional plants. The company chose the Álava electricity grid to develop Fenix and managed an array of power plants in the area via its Spectrum system. The system successfully aggregated distributed energy resources in the area included cogeneration plants such as the Iberdrola plant built for Michelín, the Guascor and Zigor facilities, the Iberdrola Renovables wind farms in Badaia and Urkilla, a solar energy facility located at the Diocesanas institute and a hydroelectric plant in Antoñana.
These facilities were aggregated into a virtual plant and controlled through the electricity control centre of Red Eléctrica, Spain’s electricity grid operator. The successful completion of Fenix represents an important milestone in the implementation of intelligent grids which, among other benefits, will increase the use of intelligent meters and improve demand management, which in turn will create a more efficient and sustainable electricity system.
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