Neoenergia has innovation among its main values. To this end, it
invests in projects to improve the company's performance and services
for its customers, many of them carried out in partnership with
educational institutions, research centers and startups, also
stimulating the development of scientific and technological production
in Brazil. The Iberdrola group, the company's controlling shareholder,
carries out the Universities Program, a global initiative that promotes
actions such as the Hackathon Neoenergia. In addition, initiatives such
as the partnership with Climate Center - Center for Integrated Studies
on the Environment and Climate Change (Coppe/UFRJ) (Centro Clima –
Centro de Estudos Integrados sobre Meio Ambiente e Mudanças Climáticas,
in Portuguese) stand out for the development of a methodology and a plan
for adapting to climate risk, which included the Neoenergia Challenges
as a way to stimulate the application of academic knowledge in real
themes of the group's business areas.
“Partnerships with the
academy are strategic to foster both scientific and technological
development in the country and to encourage professionals working in the
company. In the Neoenergia Challenges, the process itself has already
been transforming for the employees who participated, as it brought the
opportunity to interact with researchers and gain new views on the
issues presented. On the other hand, students also had the opportunity
to use their acquired knowledge in the academy to test them in real
cases, with data and information from operations, interacting with
qualified professionals”, says the superintendent of Innovation and
Sustainability at Neoenergia, Francisco Carvalho.
This activity
was carried out for three months, between 2019 and 2020. Twelve students
formed groups to analyze three real challenges in Neoenergia's business
areas - thermal and hydroelectric generation and energy distribution -
on climate change and biodiversity. Accompanied by the Company's
mentors, they developed prototypes of solutions for the areas, which can
be tested and incorporated.
The results were presented to an
examining board, formed by professors and leaders of the company, in
February 2020. The challenges involved two of the UN's Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), with which Neoenergia maintains a commitment:
13 (taking urgent measures to combat climate change and its impacts) and
15 (protecting, recovering and promoting the sustainable use of
terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat
desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity
loss).
In addition to the award, which consisted of a
presentation of the prototype to the leaders and the purchase of tablets
for each of the three students who made up the winning group, a few
months later these students were invited to participate in a project to
internalize climate risk, for through research grants, contributing to
the production of content and in discussions with experts on the subject
and representatives of the business areas. Due to the Covid-19
pandemic, all activities of scholarship holders were developed using
digital platforms.
Climate risk management
The Neoenergia
Challenges were part of a set of initiatives within the scope of a
Brazilian pioneering project in the electrical sector, in which a
climate risk assessment methodology was developed and applied to an
asset of the group. The plant defined for the pilot project was the
Termopernambuco plant (Termope) and, subsequently, the methodology was
customized and extended to Renewable Businesses, Transmission and
Distribution.
The researchers at Centro Clima studied future
georeferenced climate scenarios and historical trends for variables such
as temperature, wind speed and generation and rainfall, evaluating
their potential impacts on Termope. Based on these diagnoses, adaptive
planning measures, both institutional and physical, were identified to
eliminate and minimize any effects of changes resulting from climate
change. The studies resulted in a strategic tool for the management of
climate risk.
In addition to the methodology developed and the
stimulation of students through the challenges, training events were
offered to Neoenergia employees by professors from UFRJ and researchers
from Centro Clima, with the objective of promoting the theme of climate
resilience and adaptation. These activities were carried out online and
later made available on the Global E-learning Platform (GEP), a virtual
training environment used by the company's organizational development
area.
Innovation
An important integration action with
educational institutions that is part of the Universities Program is the
Hackathon Neoenergia. Three editions of this initiative
have
already been held, with the participation of students from different
training areas, such as Computer Science, Design, Engineering and
Biomedicine. The selected students developed methodologies and
prototypes for the grid and hydraulic and wind generation activities.
The first was carried out in partnership with the Center for Informatics
of the Federal University of Pernambuco (CIN/UFPE) (Centro de
Informática da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, in Portuguese), the
second with the Metrópole Digital Institute (IMD -UFRN) and the third
with the Center for Electrical and Computer Engineering at Escola
Politécnica da University of São Paulo (Centro de Engenharia Elétrica e
de Computação da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, in
Portuguese)(Poli-USP). As a result of the partnership with UFRN, the
prototype presented at the event of origin for a functional development,
currently in use by the wind team to add efficiency and intelligence to
the data management process of wind and solar towers.
Global strategy
Iberdrola
has agreements with universities around the world, including
partnerships with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Yale
University, in the United States; the Universities Comillas and
Salamanca, in Spain; Strathclyde, Scotland; the Instituto Tecnológico de
Monterrey, Mexico; and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, in Qatar. The
priorities of these contracts are the development of studies on clean
energy and digitalization, in addition to the training of professionals
in the group and students from these institutions.