Oxygenation of Turbined Water Flows Innovation Challenge

Following through on its commitment to combat climate change, renewable energy leader Iberdrola is back with its successful PERSEO Startup Challenges to drive the energy transition, as well as the decarbonization and electrification of the economy. In addition, Iberdrola is committed to protecting and acting for nature and is strengthening its commitment with the launch of its Biodiversity Plan 2030. This plan sets out the mechanisms to achieve the ambitious target of having a net positive impact on biodiversity by 2030. In this context, it launches the latest Iberdrola Innovation Challenge: Oxygenation of Turbined Water Flows in hydroelectric power plants.

Iberdrola's commitment to the environment and to the decarbonization of society entails maximizing the generation of renewable energy and thus a greater energetic use of water masses. Currently, Iberdrola has an installed hydraulic generation capacity of more than 10,000 MW and 4,500 MW of pumped-storage capacity.

Its hydroelectric facilities are located in river basins, the vast majority of which have defined environmental requirements for each waterbody that must be complied with.

Among the requirements of the ecological flows is to maintain the level of dissolved oxygen in the water at parameters that maintain the essential processes of healthy river ecosystems on which protected species and habitats depend and thus ensure a good ecological condition of the waterbody.

Iberdrola is no stranger to working with startups and emerging companies - since 2018, the Group has launched over 80 pilot projects with startups to address pressing issues in today's energy networks.

Moreover, working with Iberdrola presents a unique opportunity:

Winning this Challenge will award you with signing a collaboration agreement for the development of a Proof-of-Concept (PoC). The PoC will be developed in collaboration with the technical specialists from Iberdrola Networks.

Additionally, PERSEO covers the costs of the pilot activities and provides you with the necessary technical support, giving access to infrastructures and real data to test your solution.

Finally, PERSEO may consider investing in your solution!

During certain periods of the year, the waterbodies located at the level of the intake structure of some plants, do not reach the required oxygenation values in the restitution. This can lead to situations where turbinating is prevented and the consequent lack of harnessing renewable energy.

Iberdrola is seeking solutions for the discharge of power plants, either to be adopted at the turbine discharge itself or already in the riverbed that:

• Adapt to as wide a range of flow rates as possible from anoxic conditions
• Maximize the concentration of dissolved oxygen to the usually required values in a watercourse
• Are robust to sudden variations in flow during dam overflows
• Enable harnessing renewable energy with continuous water flows

The proposals will be classified into two categories, for which Iberdrola could define a base case in order to standardize the evaluation of the proposals:

• Category A: Actions on the hydraulic turbine circuit
• Category B: Actions on the tailrace or downstream watercourse

Your benefits include:

• Collaboration Agreement & Pilot Test: The prize for the winner consists of a collaboration and test agreement with PERSEO or any other Iberdrola group company. The group will support the cost of the pilot activities.

• Access-all-Areas: Iberdrola will provide the winner with all necessary technical support, as well as a site and real data to test the solution. This includes access to equipment, teams, infrastructure, high technology sites, and shared work areas.

• Scale Your Technology: If the pilot test is satisfactory, Iberdrola may offer the winner the opportunity to scale up the solution by adapting it through commercial agreements.

• Investment: What's more, PERSEO will consider investing in the participating company and/or the winner of the challenge.

The winner of the challenge will sign a partnership contract with Iberdrola and/or PERSEO and will be able to test their solution in a real environment.

For the collaboration of the pilot project, Iberdrola will:

• Assume the costs of the collaboration and the proof of concept
• Provide the necessary technical support to test the solution proposed
• Give access to equipment, appliances, infrastructure, high technology sites, and joint work areas
• Provide a real environment and real data to test the solution

The project will be developed in collaboration with technical specialists from Iberdrola Renewables.

You are welcome to submit more than one proposal, just make sure to submit a separate application form for each proposal.

The application period for this challenge ends on 14th May 2023.

UPDATE: the deadline for this challenge has been extended till 14th June 2023

While evaluating your proposals, Iberdrola will consider the following value propositions, among others:

• The maturity, reliability, and durability of the solution
• Ease of installation and maintenance
• Investment and operational costs
• Scalability of the solution for hydroelectric power plants

The applications will evaluated by experts from Iberdroal Renewables area.