BCARE strengthens its commitment to power grids with BATCT, developed within Iberdrola´s Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub ecosystem

BCARE is expanding its activity in the power grid sector with BATCT, a 48 V DC lithium battery developed for secondary substations that bears the “Producto desarrollado en el GSGIH – IBERDROLA” seal, issued by AENOR, an organisation specialising in conformity assessment.

Secondary substations are essential facilities in the power grid: they adjust the voltage of electricity so it can be distributed appropriately to points of consumption. To ensure their operation, they also have protection, control and telecommunications systems that make it possible to monitor the installation and respond to potential incidents.

BATCT was developed specifically to provide backup power to these systems. If the electricity supply is interrupted, the battery provides the power needed to keep protection, control and telecommunications systems operational. To this end, BCARE has designed a 48 V DC solution tailored specifically to the requirements of these facilities.

The product was developed within the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub (GSGIH), an innovation ecosystem promoted by i-DE, the electricity distribution company of the Iberdrola Group, together with the Provincial Council of Bizkaia. The Hub brings together companies, technology centres and institutions to develop and test new solutions that contribute to the evolution of smart grids, with more than 100 participating organisations.

In this context, the seal promoted by i-DE identifies products developed in accordance with a technical specification drawn up within the Hub itself. BCARE participates in this ecosystem as a collaborating organisation and is a qualified supplier of BATCT, bringing together its expertise in energy storage, electronics and engineering within a collaborative working model focused on specific grid needs.

“BATCT is a good example of how we can apply our battery expertise to a very specific application in the power grid. We have developed our own solution to meet specific technical requirements, and working in a collaborative environment such as the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub allows us to stay close to the sector´s real needs and combine capabilities with other specialist organisations”, says Ramón Ugarte, Managing Director of BCARE.

This work builds on BCARE´s collaboration with Iberdrola´s power grid ecosystem. In 2024, the company received Iberdrola´s Supplier of the Year Award in the Energy Transition category, recognising its availability, responsiveness and reliability in delivering the requested prototypes.

BATCT now marks a further step in BCARE´s grid-related activity and in its evolution towards developing its own technology products. As a spin-off of CIC energiGUNE, the company builds on specialised knowledge in energy storage and combines it with expertise in electronics, software, engineering and systems integration to develop solutions for specific industrial applications.

With BATCT, these capabilities are applied to infrastructure that is essential to the day-to-day operation of the power grid, resulting in a proprietary product designed to meet the backup power needs of secondary substations.