XEAL has been honoured with the Galicia Industry and Energy Award 2026 in the Energy Innovation category for the technological renovation of the Fervenza Hydroelectric Power Plant, located in the municipality of Dumbría (A Coruña), on the river Xallas. The award, granted by the Illustrious Official College of Industrial Engineers of Galicia (ICOIIG), was presented at the Galicia Industry and Energy Gala.
The recognition brings to the forefront a strategic infrastructure for the Costa da Morte, key both for its contribution to the electricity system —with an estimated annual production of 9,100 MWh, enough to supply approximately 2,600 Galician households— and for its impact on the socio-economic environment of the area.
The project, carried out between May and November 2025, involved a comprehensive modernisation. The work has transformed a facility with original control systems dating from 1966 into a digital, flexible and secure asset, bringing the installation up to the highest technical, operational and management standards. Among the improvements introduced are greater operational flexibility, adapting production in real time to the needs of the energy system; enhanced safety, with the installation of a flat-seat valve on the penstock that provides, for the first time, certified hydraulic shut-off with remote supervision; digitalisation and advanced control, with more than 500 new signals integrated into the management system to optimise performance and enable predictive maintenance; improved environmental performance, with measures for landscape integration and protection of the fish population in the river Xallas; and the extension of the plant's service life, ensuring its continuity as a key energy asset for the coming decades.
Federico Rodríguez, Director of XEAL's Energy Division, collected the award alongside the Project team and highlighted during his speech that "what we have done at Fervenza has not been simply renovating an old power plant: we have transformed it into an intelligent asset". Rodríguez also emphasised the role of local talent: "In Galicia there is the talent, the capacity for innovation and the industrial strength to lead the modernisation of our energy infrastructure".
The renovation of Fervenza represents the maturation of a model that XEAL is systematically rolling out across its entire Galician hydroelectric portfolio, with further investments planned and the development of projects such as the Monte da Ruña pumped-storage hydroelectric plant and the Dumbría charcoal plant.
