Open innovation

Open to finding ideas that will help us to grow

We have adopted an open innovation model that makes it possible to create the best solutions, products and services with a view to transforming the current energy model.

Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable development goals

SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Accessible version

Open innovation is a new model used by companies in their relations with external players (universities, start-ups, research centres, other companies in the same or a different sector, etc.) that promotes collaboration and idea sharing.

At Endesa we have adopted this open model to find quality ideas that will help us to grow. Our purpose when entering this new culture is to develop innovative solutions that are capable of transforming the current energy model.

Open Innovability, the digital door open to sustainable innovation

Open Innovability is the digital platform on which we foster a culture of innovation inside and outside the Enel Group. By using it, employees, start-ups, independent innovators, universities, research centres, companies, NGOs and associations can propose innovative and sustainable ideas or projects that seek to respond to different energy-related challenges.

Open Innovability has launched a multitude of challenges related to topics as varied as renewable installations, security, solutions for disabled people, smart cities, disabled people or the digital experience with customers. These challenges cover all the needs of Sustainability, Environment, Generation, Distribution and both residential and business customers.

Workshop at Enel Madrid Innovation Hub

Endesa and entrepreneurs: attracting external talent

We wish to encourage communication and collaboration with entrepreneurs and start-ups, due to their capacity for disruptive innovation, their use of technology, their know-how and, above all, their ability to develop and bring products and services to market in the shortest possible time.

Endesa, as part of the Enel Group, is open to the global ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship through the 10 Enel Innovation Hubs and 22 startup laboratories. These Enel Innovation Hubs are located in important entrepreneurship centres and the Group’s strategic markets around the world: Brazil, Chile, Israel, Italy, Russia, Spain and the United States.

Madrid is home to the Enel Innovation Hub Europe, located in TheCube Madrid, a space created by and for entrepreneurs with a focus on the Internet of Things, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, from where they prospect for European startups and develop relationships with the main innovation ecosystems of the continent for the entire Group. European ecosystems are highly relevant within Enel's innovation strategy. Of the nearly 110 collaborations that Enel has established with startups globally, more than 170 have been with startups in this region.

Through the hubs we have already made contact with 11,000 startups, which has allowed us to carry out more than 450 collaborations and drive more than 110 projects to the commercial phase. For more information, visit startup.enel.com.

The culture of innovation: Idea Hub

To promote the creation of a culture of innovation among our employees as a key change factor, we created Enel Idea Hub Spain, a unit dedicated to promoting the use of creative methodologies, entrepreneurship projects and training programmes in specific innovative tools.

Programmes:

Make It Happen

Intra-entrepreneurship programme that gives Endesa employees the opportunity to become entrepreneurs within the company.

Challenge Driven Sessions

Workshops on the application of innovative methodologies to searching for innovative solutions to the company's challenges. In 2019, 34 sessions were held in which 14 challenges were addressed, involving more than 400 employees.