The creation of Gridspertise was announced at Enlit Europe 2021 in Milan. Over the past three years, it has grown significantly and in this interview with the Spanish website SmartGridsInfo, Santiago Cascante, our Chief Strategy Officer, reflects on the transformative journey of the past three years.
He highlights the company's expanding presence in Spain and sheds light on the strategic initiatives and innovations that are driving our growth in this dynamic market.
Gridspertise specializes in smart devices to accelerate the digital transformation of electricity distribution networks. What is Gridspertise's presence in the Spanish market? What activities and growth plans do you have for Spain?
Spain has been making significant investments in smart grids as part of its strategy to modernize the electric grid and support the integration of renewable energy sources and Spanish main Distribution System Operators (DSOs) are all closely involved in network digitalization and adaptation to the new Smart Grid context. They are also facing a crucial juncture, with the need to replace the first-generation smart meters, which are nearing the end of their operational lifespan.
Gridspertise has a strong and growing presence in the Spanish market. Between 2010 and 2018, more than 14 million smart meters with Gridspertise technology were deployed and played a crucial role in enabling remote metering management nationwide. Today, Gridspertise’s new generation smart meter Globy - a new flexible, modular and interoperable solution managing multiple communication technologies and protocols - is the most favorable solution for the upcoming second-generation smart meter rollouts.
The new deployment of the metering infrastructure opens the possibility of also modernizing the substation, which has become the nerve center of the distribution grid. Gridspertise is also promoting digital substations through a virtualization and edge computing platform that enables improved management and control of low-voltage networks, creating an ecosystem of grid edge solutions highly focused on the needs of the distribution network in Spain.
After three years since its creation in 2021 to address the digitalization needs of utilities, what has been the evolution of Gridspertise so far? On what will your strategy be based to continue with your expansion plans in the energy market worldwide?
We are a young company, but our technology has been on the market for over 20 years. The electricity market has evolved, as have the needs of utilities. We have adapted by expanding our range of solutions from secondary substations to meters, including products and services that provide utilities with greater visibility, control, and automation at the edge, where management is more necessary due to the high penetration of renewables and the growing implementation of electric vehicles.
We begin our journey with the size of a start-up. Today, we are a global Group of over 500 people serving 200 customers worldwide. Our reach extends throughout Europe, as in the case of Italy, Spain, Romania, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, as well as Germany, with a strong presence in Latin America, and India.
In November 2023, we acquired Aidon, a Finnish company operating as a leading smart metering solution provider in Nordics area with over 1 million energy metering point connected to Aidon’s Metering as a Service and setup Neugemacht, a joint venture with Cuculus GmbH aiming at delivering end-to-end metering services in Germany.
The acquisition of Aidon and the setup of Neugemacht are cornerstones of our current strategy of shifting towards As-a-Service models. With this approach we aim to meet the increasingly complex needs of utilities and energy transition players, offering cost-effective, scalable, and accessible solutions, without requiring specialized skills or resources, along with complete maintenance, support, and detailed data insights.
What devices does Gridspertise offer for smart grids and what characterizes them? What are your main solutions for utilities?
We have just celebrated our third anniversary, but we consolidate more than twenty years of field-proven expertise in smart grid technology, because Gridspertise was set up as a carve-out of Enel’s experience in developing and scaling up digital technologies for the distribution networks.
Leveraging our experience inside a DSO, Gridspertise’s solutions are designed with a focus on reliability, cybersecurity, and ease of integration. They support the most widespread communication protocols and industry standards, as well as a multi-vendor approach capable of avoiding any risk of vendor lock-in.
Our solutions support utilities at every stage of grid digitalization, focusing on advanced metering infrastructure and grid intelligence. We offer end-to-end solutions from the secondary substations to the meters, and we are among the few providers that concentrate on advanced technologies for medium and low-voltage grids.
- In Spain we are currently providing our Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solutions, including smart meters, primarily using two PLC communication protocols (PRIME and M&M). Additionally, we can incorporate Radio Frequency in both cases, along with the remote management system associated with the infrastructure (HES and MDM).
- We can also provide solutions for several use cases related to the secondary substations: the QEd - Quantum Edge® Device, our edge platform for virtualization and real-time processing of substations. Thanks to its decentralized computational capability, QEd addresses the main challenges of the grid, such as automation and DER integration, outage prevention and reduction, IoT sensor integration, metering, remote monitoring, and control by providing the possibility to remotely update the equipment with new applications through its cloud-edge architecture.
- With the recently introduced smaller form factor version, the QEd1000, Spanish DSOs can also use an integrated solution for low voltage management, which incorporates several use cases related to the MV/LV distribution substation into a single solution with a special focus asset management such as the transformer and accurate measurements of all low voltage outlets.
Last year, smart meters with Gridspertise technology have surpassed 100 million units worldwide. What does this milestone mean for the company? What other goals do you have set for the short and medium term?
Reaching the milestone of over 100 million smart meters with Gridspertise technology delivered worldwide is a significant achievement for our company. It not only highlights the trust that utilities place in our solutions but also reinforces our leadership in the digital transformation of electricity distribution networks. This milestone is a testament to the advanced capabilities of our smart devices, which are playing a crucial role in improving grid efficiency, enabling consumer empowerment, and accelerating the integration of renewable energy sources globally.
We are committed to continuous product innovation and improvement, ensuring our solutions remain at the forefront of the industry. Cybersecurity is a top priority, and we invest heavily in robust measures to protect our clients’ business.
We will continue to leverage cutting-edge technologies like AI and IoT to enhance our products and services and support the transition to a more sustainable and digitalized energy future.
Additionally, the launch of Globy, our latest smart meter, represents the culmination of our 20 years of experience in the field of smart metering. Globy is a flexible and customizable device that can adapt to different customer needs, depending on the location of the utilities. Globy can switch to a different communication technology directly in the field by choosing from a variety of communication protocols. In doing so, it can enhance connectivity and coverage in remote locations with weak signals and rural areas. Globy is also interoperable according to DLMS international standards.
How important is it to digitalize electricity grids to advance the energy transition? What do you expect from this new era of smart grids and how do you assess the European plans to accelerate the deployment of electricity grids and their digitalization?
Digitalization is the only option to implement the energy transition at the required speed. We need, to adapt our power grids for the distributed and intermittent generation from renewable sources, and to ensure energy efficiency and supply quality. The introduction of smart metering is one of the core elements in the European policies targeting competitiveness and environmental sustainability of energy markets.
Smart metering has been addressed in the Directive on common rules for the internal market in electricity (Directive (EU) 2019/944), which underlines that smart meters must be equipped with the right functionalities for the customers and for the network operators. For more than a decade, EU Directives have been progressively setting the policy agenda for smart metering rollouts. We are global leaders in metering and have pioneered massive rollouts in several countries in Europe, giving us an extensive experience that we can leverage to support European players. We are also leading roll-out in other countries and we have expertise in second-generation meters, which sets us apart.
Smart meters, sensors, data analysis and control have made the grid more responsive and efficient. But the huge amount of data from smart grid devices is hard to manage as traditional digitalization offers centralized management but struggles with the vast data from electrification and distributed energy resources.
As a cornerstone of network virtualization and remote management, our QEd aligns perfectly with these plans. It enables automated network management and the implementation of control and protection functions, offering a multitude of benefits. These include improved network planning, as outlined in the Digitalization of Energy Action Plan, increased hosting capacity, and the management of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). These benefits not only align with the Digitalization of Energy Action Plan but also contribute to broader European initiatives like 'Fit for 55' and 'Horizon 2030'.
For these reasons, the European Commission expects about €584bn of investment in Europe’s electricity grid between 2020 and 2030, and among this €170bn would go to digitalization.
Eurelectric’s Grids for Speed study shows that distribution grid investments should increase from an average €33 billion to €67 billion per year from 2025 to 2050, roughly 20% of what the EU spent on fossil fuel imports in 2023.
The new era of smart grids also requires smart regulations. Regulations should adapt to the evolving energy market landscape. New regulatory models should not only incentivize investment in assets, but also encourage investment in operations, including technology and digitalization. When supported by right regulatory environment, new emerging grid strategies can reduce the investment required by around 18% to €55 billion annually.
What collaborations have you planned with the Spanish industrial and innovation world?
Historically, we have collaborated with the main Spanish research centers in the development of our solutions, as well as integrating excellent professionals from Spanish universities. We intend to continue this collaboration not only for the distribution networks in Spain, but also to export solutions to the rest of the world's networks. The existing ecosystem of cooperation between institutions, universities and industrial world is essential to continue the digitalization process.
In the case of QEd, for example, we have launched an open Co-creation program in Spain that allows this innovation ecosystem to develop and virtualize applications on our platform. Once the application is virtualized and validated, it becomes available to all Gridspertise customers worldwide. We strongly believe in open innovation and collaboration to develop the technology that power grids need.