IBERDROLA INGENIERÍA will start up a substation and related 220 kV high-voltage line to facilitate the electricity connection at the new desalination plant in Torrevieja, in the province of Alicante, which is currently in the construction phase.

The work, budgeted at some €7.3 million, was awarded to the company by the state-owned Aguas de las Cuencas Mediterráneas (Acuamed) and includes both the drafting and the execution of the project.

This new contract evidences the sound strategy of this IBERDROLA subsidiary, which is based on attracting clients from outside the Group as well as on progressively expanding its international operations. Last year, 84% of the company's turnover was with third parties, five percentage points higher than in 2008.

The construction of substations and electricity-distribution lines is one of the IBERDROLA INGENIERÍA’s four main business areas, in addition to the development of generation infrastructure, nuclear power plants and renewable-energy facilities.

The subsidiary's most important recent electricity-grid projects include the construction of a €46 million, 400 kV electricity line more than 120 km long between the towns of Puebla de Guzmán (Huelva) and Guillena (Sevilla).

The company has also started up the 400 kV Tres Cantos substation, which supplies electricity for the Madrid-Valladolid high-speed train (AVE), the final phase of the 45/15 kV Pacífico substation for the Madrid subway, and the Saucedilla and Saelices substations, the purpose of which will be to transfer electricity generated by the respective renewal plants.

Currently —and for external clients as well— IBERDROLA INGENIERÍA is developing several network-infrastructure projects in Spain which are in either the project or the execution phase and are valued at €13 million: three 132/20 kV substation and a 45 kV substation, along with the respective powerlines.

This IBERDROLA subsidiary, which has become the group's technological core, has consolidated its position as the leading energy engineering company in Spain and the third largest in the world in terms of turnover from foreign business, with a presence in more than 30 countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.

The company, which has over 2,400 employees, introduced a new strategic model in 2005 based on expanding its international operations and signing third-party contracts. Output has thus tripled and its project portfolio has multiplied by a factor of 3.3 over the last five years.

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