R&D Projects

The cities of the future are smart cities. Évora has become an Iberian pioneer in terms of energy evolution. (so as not to repeat what's a paragraph below)

Aimed at transforming cities into innovative and smart spaces, the “InovCity” project was launched in the Alentejo by EDP Distribuição in 2010, with the support of EDP Innovação, Logical, Inesc Porto, Efacec, Janz and Contar.

Évora was thus the first Iberian city to test a new way of designing electricity distribution and generation. The first step was to automate electricity grid management in order to reduce operating costs, and promote energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

But the beginning of Évora's history as the first smart city, dates back to 2007, when EDP began to develop a pioneering project at European level that revolutionized grids and their way of interacting with consumers: Inovgrid.

Inovgrid's aim is to move towards a smart grid electrical system, focusing on the remote management of energy.

Inovcity has had a very positive impact on energy efficiency in Évora.

60% Savings on electricity consumption with the introduction of LED technology and artificial intelligence in Évora.

2011 was the year in which the European Commission and Eureletric selected InovCity as the single case study of smart energy grids from more than 260 projects.

100 thousand is the number of new EDP Boxes installed in Évora, enabling this many Portuguese families to reduce their energy bill.

After Évora

The project was considered a technological renewal and became a world reference for its capacity to operate in the distribution grid, supported by an infrastructure that meets the needs arising from energy efficiency, remote management, distributed production and microgeneration.

After the success of the project in this Alentejo city, seven new locations with different characteristics were selected. Guimarães, São João da Madeira, Lamego, Marinha Grande, Batalha, Alcochete, and the islands of Faro and Olhão were the cities and places chosen to install this smart electrical distribution system.

The project has also reached Spain and Brazil. In 2011, the InovGrid project transformed Aparecida into the first city in the State of São Paulo to have a smart energy grid. The pilot project foresaw the feasibility test of a set of technologies that allow greater efficiency and quality in customer service, such as smart metering, efficient street lighting, micro-production with renewable energy sources, electric mobility and energy efficiency actions.