Rafael Sánchez Durán, the decade of electrification

We now begin to see how global warming has been joined by new challenges relating to security of supply. The gas crisis following the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have brought this need to the forefront. Together with climate change, transition to local renewable sources enables us to reduce our dependence on energy from exterior sources as a result these serious episodes.

By the middle of this century we will need to have doubled the preponderance of electricity in the final total for energy that, according to different scenarios, should reach between 50% and 60%, but there needs to be a change of pace in this decade which we aim to call the "decade of electrification".

Electricity is making its way into sectors such as transport, industry and building as part of a new industrial revolution, called the "fourth" by Klaus Schwab, chief economist at the World Economic Forum. If during the previous decade the appearance of the internet revolutionised each sector, in the present decade the "e" for electric will be one of the new key factors that develop sustainability, these include eCities, ePorts, eMobility, eIndustries, eHome, etc. This means that energy transition is taking over the leading role from digital transformation.

Society needs indigenous, renewable energy, but it also needs to be affordable and reliable. Our efforts are a strategic factor because of the necessity and challenges that remain to be solved.

Electricity is capable of reinventing everything: Mobility, the comfort of our spaces, and it can even lead to development from models based on property to other collaborative, circular models.

The discovery of fire certainly brought about a new evolutionary status, but now we are reinventing it, as Armory Lovins, chief scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute, explained in "Reinventing Fire".

Electricity is in full transformation, in the present decade we are abandoning coal and in the next it will be gas, while we are at it we will also need to solve the challenges presented by security of supply with solutions based on flexibility and storage. By the middle of this decade we will have made considerable progress and removed the barriers to sustainable mobility, with fast and ultra-fast charging solutions that will enable more than 11 million electric vehicles to circulate in Europe.

In this decade of electrification it is essential that we do not walk alone, our investment and transformation capacity will be insufficient if they are not accompanied by a model based on collaboration and alliances with our local environment. The transformation of electricity grids and mixes are only one small part.

The consumer of the previous decade will have to develop and become an "efficient prosumer" who, even in "future transactional markets", will play an essential role in the security of supply thanks to our smart grids.

Endesa will play a key role in progress towards "Net Zero by 2050" in Spain, which is why we are accelerating the pace in order to take advantage of the wave that is advancing at this time and becoming aware of the importance of technology and the use of data as allies.

It will be a decade of great progress, of great efforts, but we have the necessary resources: The sun, our inexhaustible ally, that rises and sets every day in our streets without needing to be imported; and the talent of the people in Endesa, our best letter of introduction, their knowledge and experience.

All this will enable us to ensure that this decade will be "the decade of electrification".