Indra and HCL sign an agreement to offer iot solutions for active grid management to utilities in North America

Indra, one of the top global consulting and technology, and HCL IoT WoRKS, a dedicated business unit on IoT of HCL Technologies, a leading provider of technology services, have announced an alliance to market InGRID Active Grid Management (AGM) to North American utilities. An Internet of Things (IoT) platform for monitoring and controlling grids, AGM has been developed by Indra with Intel technology to facilitate the dynamic, proactive, distributed and smart operation of power grids. The solution opens the door to consumers who want to manage their energy use and actively participate in new business models that improve the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the electrical system.

Under the terms of the agreement, HCL IoT WoRKS will offer the InGRID AGM platform to sector companies in the United States and Canada, as well as integration services. It will also display the platform in its IoT COLLAB Redmond, Seattle, USA and Noida, India. Meanwhile, Indra will supply the solution and the experts necessary to execute the projects.

The alliance was announced at DistribuTECH 2018, the most important conference and exhibition on technology for the utilities sector, which was held in San Antonio (Texas) last week. Indra was exhibiting the platform in its own space on the stand sponsored by Intel, which has certified InGRID AGM as a Market Ready Solution (MRS) and therefore included it in the company's portfolio of solutions.

InGRID AGM facilitates the monitoring and direct control of medium and low-voltage grids by providing a comprehensive view of them. It also permits the efficient integration of customers' self-consumption systems as well as distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy generation, energy storage, virtual generation plants and electric vehicles. This means that generators, operators and consumers can share services in real time, allowing generation and demand to be balanced automatically in more efficient way while reducing the overall costs of the electricity system and improving its reliability.

The solution is based on a distributed architecture that allows end customers to automate the criteria for managing their use and generation in coordination with operators and demand aggregators, such as the retailers, through services and market prices. This same intelligence facilitates the automatic reaction of the grid to risks like service interruption and imbalances between supply and demand, as well as coordinating the response with the end customers and operators.

The application of IoT technologies allows utilities to reduce the cost of automating the distribution grid while supporting new services associated with the innovation and disruption that are currently taking place in the field of distributed energy resources, including electric mobility.

InGRID AGM has been piloted in several utilities in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Oceania.

About Indra

Indra is one of the world's top consulting and technology companies and a technology partner for the key operations of its customers' businesses worldwide. It is a leading worldwide provider of proprietary solutions in niche areas in Transport and Defense Markets and the absolute leader in IT in Spain and Latin America. It offers a comprehensive range of proprietary solutions and cutting edge services with a high added value in technology based on a unique culture of reliability, flexibility and adaptability to the needs of its customers. Indra is a world leader in the development of end-to-end technology solutions in fields such as Defense and Security, Transport and Traffic, Energy and Industry, Telecommunications and Media, Financial Services, Electoral Processes, and Public Administrations and Healthcare. Through its Minsait unit, it addresses the challenges of digital transformation. In 2016 Indra posted a revenue of €2,709m, employed 34,000 professionals, and had a local presence in 46 countries plus sales operations in more than 140 countries. Following its acquisition of Tecnocom, Indra's combined revenue amounted to more than €3,200m in 2016 with a team of nearly 40,000 professionals.

IoT WoRKS™, the Internet of Things dedicated business unit of HCL Technologies, enables organizations to leverage best-in-class IoT solutions for maximizing returns from their asset investments and creating entirely new services that deliver measurable business outcomes.

Recognized as market leader in IoT consulting and services by four leading analyst firms—IDC, Everest Group, HfS and Zinnov—IoT WoRKS™ offers end-to-end IoT services across the define, build and run phases to help design enterprise IoT programs, as well as to develop and implement IoT systems for realizing business value. The IoT innovation lab, called IoT COLLAB, provides a collaborative platform that incubates innovative ideas, nurtures them to POC, and brings them to life in production environments.