Bidelek Sareak is an initiative of the Basque Government through its energy agency, Ente Vasco de la Energía and Iberdrola Distribución Eléctrica to provide smart grids in urban and rural areas that will increase the efficiency and security of the power supply. The main challenge for these smart grids is to develop a more flexible, robust and secure system which will benefit power distributors, users and the business community.
Bidelek Sareak aims to deploy smart grids in the urban nuclei of Bilbao and Portugalete and in the rural area of Lea Artibai. Roll-out began at the end of 2011 and will be completed in 2014. The Basque Country now has 230,000 smart meters, advanced technologies in 1,100 transformer centres and 3 modernised power substations with digital technology.