Enel has entered into an alliance with the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), the state-owned company that produces and distributes electricity to 2,9 million customers in Israel, to select startups and "accelerate research and development activities in the infrastructure and grid sectors". The Italian group writes it in a note, specifying that the agreement with the IEC was signed by Infralab, the innovation laboratory dedicated to the digitization of companies in the infrastructure sector born from the joint venture between Enel and the Israeli construction company Shikun & Binui.
The theme is infrastructure and networks and the possibilities that innovative startups offer in this very strategic field for a group that, like Enel, has made digital one of the main driving forces behind the development of its industrial plan. Israel is one of the countries ahead in the search for new innovative technological formulas and the new partnership is in practice an investment in the future, not even that far away.
Startups participating in the program they will be able to use the structures and equipment of IEC and Enel both in Israel and abroad, also benefiting from the corporate and technological tutoring of Infralab.
“This agreement marks an important milestone in Enel's journey towards the Open Innovation model,” he commented Ernesto Ciorra, director of innovability at Enel – The mutual exchange of ideas is invaluable in the increasingly competitive scenario of the Infrastructure and Networks sector and, through cooperation with the IEC, in the dynamic community of Israeli technology startups, we will seek out and promote innovation opportunities that aim to create an increasingly cutting-edge, reliable, secure and resilient energy network”.
The main focus is the digital replication of the physical electrical infrastructure. The start-ups will also work on the identification of technologies useful for accelerating the processes of construction, management and maintenance of electrical systems. Other topics will be grid flexibility, remote control and monitoring of networks, the transition to renewable energy sources and the defense of essential infrastructures from cyber attacks. Finally, through a bootcamp, a team of experts will select the most innovative projects that will be developed and tested within the programme.
Livy Gallus, director of Enel's global infrastructure and networks business line, "this partnership aims to promote one of the most interesting sectors in the world for start-ups, which can design seemingly endless paths to make our significant infrastructure even more solid, secure and digitized and the global energy system, while promoting the energy transition through accelerating electrification and decarbonization”.
