Elewit, Redeia's technological platform, has hand-picked four projects from the pool of six finalists in the third year of its intrapreneurship programme, Despega. The selected projects aim to address issues related to electrical risk in electrical infrastructure operations, the availability and cost of equipment and materials in the electrical sector, the time required for discharges, the disconnection of installations from the electrical grid, and the gradual increase in radio frequency spectrum interference.

The Despega programme aims to empower professionals from Redeia and its subsidiaries (Red Eléctrica, Reintel, Hispasat, Redinter, and Elewit) by providing them with the opportunity to take on the role of innovators within the organisation. This initiative stands out as a key driver in the company's cultural transformation, offers professionals the support they need to develop and launch their own ideas into the market. It serves as a crucial tool for identifying new business opportunities through expert knowledge of the group's employees.

Silvia Bruno, Elewit's director, says that "with this programme, we offer our internal talent the chance to embark on and work on projects within the realms of electricity and telecommunications."

"If we want to continue progressing in the ecological transition, we must become more revolutionary, creative, and innovative, and we need fresh ideas to face the current and future challenges. And we are convinced that within the company there are ideas, talent, and initiatives that have great potential.

The chosen projects in the third year of Elewit's Despega programme are:

• SafeLightning: Signalling device for safety earthing systems, incorporating both light signals and location indicators at the control centre. It focuses on safety in the field of electrical work.
• Spare Parts Marketplace: The solution proposes mutualising high-value parts through a Marketplace and reducing CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) by changing it to OPEX (Operational Expenditure), as well as the option of monetising unused parts, while reducing the time to obtain the right part.
• App Downloads: An app to automate claims management, which suggests relying on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the automatic selection of items rather than one by one.
• Interference Detection: Convolutional neural network to automate radiofrequency spectrum monitoring in spatial capacity. The project is currently in the functional prototype phase and, in the near future, will assist the human team in detecting these types of incidents more quickly, with the additional advantage of being optimisable and not requiring a break.

Key components of the Despega Intrapreneurship Programme

The Despega programme is divided into three stages. The first phase is called Selection, where the Elewit team pre-screens the business ideas with the most potential and selects the participants for the Bootcamp phase. During this second phase, they work on shaping their idea, receiving external training and support for two months to refine the value proposition. A panel of Redeia executives and external guests selects the projects that will advance to the next phase.

During the Venture Creation phase, projects that receive support from the selection committee - such as SafeLighting, Spare Parts Marketplace, Downloads App, and Interference Detection in this edition - receive funding and an additional six months to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and validate their market potential.

Since its inception in 2022, Elewit's Despega programme has evaluated a total of 30 ideas and proposals presented by employees of Redeia and its subsidiaries over a three-year period, with nine projects making it to the final phase. Among other things, this was the case with Skylinks, an application that streamlines the design of satellite telecommunication services in the new context of high-capacity flexible satellites, acquired by Hispast; or with SafeDelimit, a spin-off from the programme, which develops a hardware solution based on LiDAR technology to mark out safe work areas in industrial facilities.

About Elewit

In 2019, Redeia's technological platform was created with the aim of providing solutions to the new challenges in the electricity and telecommunications sectors, and with the goal of driving energy transition and connectivity to create a sustainable future. More information