Over the past decade, the Iberdrola Group has grown 160 percent compared to only 10 percent growth achieved by most of its competitors.
This is the result of a strategic decision to expand from its role as a local utilities company in Spain to become a global energy leader fully committed to a sustainable energy transition. Today, it is the world’s leading green-power producer and one of the largest electricity companies in the world in terms of market capitalization, and the biggest in Europe.
According to the company’s leadership, electrification is the most effective way to guarantee security of supply, reinforce energy autonomy and strengthen competitiveness while protecting the natural environment. The group is therefore investing €41 billion in the 2024-2026 period to promote the electrification of the economy.
“Iberdrola focused its international expansion mostly in the UK, US, Brazil and Mexico by making some strategic acquisitions around the world, over the last 20 years” said Carlos Asensio, Head of Digital Planning and Data & AI Governance, part of the IT organization at Iberdrola. He was speaking at the SAP Executive Digital Exchange for Energy & Utilities event held recently in Rotterdam.
Leader in renewable energy
Iberdrola
“Iberdrola has grown exponentially. We multiplied our green installed power capacity, and dramatically increased our regulated networks and distribution business, using innovation and technology as an accelerator,” he explained.
Ethical AI at the core
Iberdrola’s workforce includes 42,000 employees and indirectly impacts 500,000 people through suppliers and partners. The company has been pioneering the use of AI and integrating it into daily operations all along.
On the path towards a decarbonized and sustainable future, the use of AI optimizes processes and drives a new energy era. Iberdrola, an AI pioneer in the sector, has integrated this technology all over its value chain to accelerate the energy transition, the decarbonization of the economy, and the achievement of global climate goals.
“AI solutions have dynamized business processes in the last 15 years and have helped position the Iberdrola Group as a reference in areas such as wind and generation forecasting, networks outage recovery management and customer smart assistance,” he said.
The use of AI in Iberdrola not only impacts the business processes but also people productivity. According to the digital expert, global deployment of Microsoft Copilot capabilities using Gen AI is leading to significant improvements in efficiency and the best use of time.
Iberdrola is the company with the highest number of people actively using Copliot Chat in Spain. This transformation is possible thanks to a very intensive Gen AI training initiative involving more than 3,000 employees. The program is based on a variety of content from ethics and governance using new tools and Gen AI.
With Iberdrola’s emphasis on ethical responsibility and innovation, when it comes to AI, Carlos’ job is all about leveraging its benefits for transforming the business processes while implementing AI regulatory compliance frameworks and controls to minimize ethical concerns.
The team reviews and implements the necessary controls and policies to ensure the responsible and ethical use of AI, based on the EU AI Act. The first-ever legal framework on AI, the EU AI Act addresses the risks of AI and positions Europe to play a leading role in developing a trustworthy use of AI.
Last year, Iberdrola became the first European energy utility to join the EU AI Pact—a voluntary framework launched by the European Commission to promote early adoption of the AI Act’s principles.
By signing the pact, Iberdrola committed to:
- Developing an internal AI governance strategy
- Identifying AI systems that may be classified as high-risk under the EU AI Act
- Enhancing AI literacy and awareness among its workforce
Iberdrola also collaborates with other AI Pact members and stakeholders through various initiatives such as the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, universities and start-ups, and through their venture capital company named Perseo.
Leading with responsibility
There are multiple risks in the use of AI. Leakage of confidential information, potential illicit uses, lack of transparency, the use of incorrect or biased content and flawed adherence to regulatory compliance are all possible risks.
According to the EU AI Act, risks range from minimum to high risk to unacceptable, in which case the use of the AI tool in question is prohibited. One example that’s relevant to the workplace is the use of emotion recognition AI tools to monitor workers, because it is not only invasive, but often inaccurate.
Pioneering electrification
Iberdrola
“We’re very aware of the risks and opportunities of working with AI,” said Carlos. “We don’t use AI for the operation of our critical infrastructure assets, and we ensure the transparency and explicability of the AI models that will interact with customers, employees or providers.
Carlos and his team identified a number of business processes where AI has high transformational potential from corporate activities to operations and maintenance, and from energy management to customer experience. They realized there is a big opportunity to optimize operations and improve efficiency while enhancing people satisfaction.
Carlos also listed a number of ways AI will help to improve communication with customers, employees and suppliers. New tools include automatically generated emails, claims bots, agents for sales agents, automatic documentation and image validation. “Our field staff from renewables to networks will use Gen AI features and assistants.”
“We built Generative AI platforms so our businesses can implement use cases in an agile, secure and responsible manner,” he explained.
One critical topic is the lack of AI technical capabilities in a very competitive market. “This is a very important topic for us. Our focus on talent attraction and retention helped earn us the Top Employers Enterprise international award in people management,” Carlos explained. Iberdrola is the only energy company in the world to achieve this distinction.
All these internal activities and collaborative engagements exemplify Iberdrola’s commitment to sharing best practices, ethical responsibility and advancing the collective understanding of AI’s role in the energy sector. That’s how the company is powering a new future for energy.
