GAS NATURAL INFORMATICA S.A.

Their core work

Gas Natural Informatica is the IT and digital services subsidiary of Gas Natural (now Naturgy), one of Spain's largest energy utilities based in Barcelona. They provide IT infrastructure, data analytics, and digital platform development for energy distribution and smart city applications. In H2020 projects, they contributed as a third-party affiliate — bringing real-world utility data, grid infrastructure access, and operational IT systems to demonstration and innovation projects focused on smart grids, energy efficiency, and urban energy management.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 involvement (2015-2016) centred on broad smart city demonstration projects — lighthouse energy saving pilots and IoT device exploration through GrowSmarter and EnSO. By 2017, their focus shifted clearly toward grid-level intelligence: smart grid integration, demand response optimization, predictive control, and network modelling in inteGRIDy. This progression mirrors the energy sector's own shift from general smart city concepts to specific, data-driven grid management.

Moving from broad energy efficiency pilots toward specialized grid digitalization and demand-side management — expect continued focus on distribution grid intelligence and data-driven energy optimization.

How they like to work

Gas Natural Informatica participated exclusively as a third party (affiliated entity) across all four projects, meaning they were brought in through a consortium partner — likely the parent company Gas Natural/Naturgy. They never led or directly partnered in proposals. This pattern is typical of corporate IT subsidiaries that provide technical infrastructure and data access to support the parent group's R&D commitments rather than pursuing independent research agendas.

Through their four projects, they were indirectly connected to 176 unique partners across 20 countries — a wide European footprint driven by the large-scale Innovation Action consortia they contributed to rather than by direct partnership-building.

What sets them apart

As the IT arm of a major Spanish energy utility, they offer something most research organizations cannot: direct access to real operational energy distribution data, live grid infrastructure, and the IT systems that run a national gas and electricity network. For any consortium needing a real-world utility testbed in Spain — particularly Barcelona — this affiliation is their key differentiator. However, engagement must go through the parent company since they operate as a third-party contributor, not an independent project partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• inteGRIDy
  Most technically specific project — directly addressed smart grid integration, demand response, and predictive control for distribution networks across multiple European sites.
• GrowSmarter
  High-profile EU lighthouse smart city project involving Barcelona, Stockholm, and Cologne as demonstration cities with significant replication ambitions.