ZGR battery system kept one Spanish village powered during major Iberian blackout
San Vicente del Monte, a small village in Cantabria with around 200 residents, was the only town in Spain unaffected by the April blackout. The resilience was thanks to a 2020-era pilot project developed for the utility Viesgo, which was acquired by Portuguese energy giant EDP that same year.
As part of the initiative, ZGR delivered four turnkey pilot projects across northern Spain, in areas where EDP-Viesgo manages distribution for around 700,000 customers. According to José Antonio Grande, ZGR’s Director of Business Development, these were specifically deployed in rural areas at the end of distribution lines; locations typically more vulnerable to outages and voltage drops.
“The Spanish distribution network is generally stable and robust,” Grande told pv magazine Spain. “But end-of-line branches in rural zones require specific technical measures to strengthen reliability. That’s why we developed these four project, two in Cantabria and two in Galicia, to improve power quality and ensure backup supply during outages. In the case of San Vicente, the goal was to maintain energy supply even during grid failures.”
The San Vicente system took four months to install and cost €225,000 (USD$245,000). At the time, Viesgo described the installation as a “clean and sustainable” technological reinforcement of the local grid infrastructure.
The 20-foot containerised system includes a ZGR inverter and a Narada LiFePO₄ battery, along with air-powered cooling, auxiliary services, and a mandatory fire suppression system. Connected to a local distribution transformer, it supports a load of 300 kVA and stores up to 300 kWh per feeder. With a typical local consumption of around 50 kWh during the day, the installation can supply the village independently for over five hours.
“It’s a modular solution, as with all ZGR systems. The bidirectional inverter manages battery charge and discharge based on system needs. When a blackout occurs, the system automatically forms a local grid, drawing on stored energy to supply customers,” said Grande.
Aesthetic integration was also considered. “In Lugo, for example, we used a wooden façade on the container to blend with the surroundings,” he added.
The system deployed in 2020 used a 1,000 V PCS inverter with 250 kW power modules. At Intersolar this year, ZGR showcased new models with 3,000 and 4,500 kW capacity at 1,500 V, each using 750 kW modules.
Asked about the viability of deploying similar systems in other vulnerable regions, such as La Palma, which recently experienced a blackout, Grande noted that these solutions are technically adaptable. “They can be installed anywhere the grid is sensitive. The challenge is that Spain lacks a capacity market to incentivise this type of infrastructure. But long-term, these solutions will be deployed more consistently to strengthen distribution networks.”
ZGR is currently involved in projects ranging from standalone storage to hybrid systems, including installations at the scale of hundreds of megawatts. It is also expanding manufacturing capacity, with plans to open two new facilities in Spain to reach 6 GW of output, and a new factory under construction in Phoenix, USA, expected to open in 2026.
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