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Abengoa's Technological and Industrial Centre in Seville to take place

Abengoa's future Technological and Industrial Centre in Seville will be the business headquarters for all the companies that the engineering group has in Seville - the first Andalusian multinational with sales in excess of 1.5 billion Euros and more than 8,400 employees.

The centre will be a modern structure situated on a parcel of land with 42,000 square metres and a maximum ceiling of 50,000 square metres in the zone known as Palmas Altas. The concentration of the different technology businesses in a single centre, currently located across different regions of the city of Seville, will allow on the one hand, to meet the shortage that growth in the businesses has generated during recent years and, on the other hand, to have sufficient spare capacity to absorb the positive growth forecast for coming years. Likewise, it will end the difficulties that affect many of the businesses due to the current location and its distribution and will realise the value of the potential synergies between these businesses that the current distribution prevents.

To date the lack of appropriate land has prevented the project, which has been in negotiation between the parties since 1999, from being finalised. The recent offer of the Palmas Altas land by Seville Council has revived the project.

Once the construction of the Technological and Industrial Centre in Seville has been concluded, the businesses currently located in the Carretera Amarilla Industrial Park next to the Cruzcampo-Heineken beer plant and in the Ronda de Tamarguillo-Alcampo office centre will be transferred to it. If the transfer were to be carried out today, approximately nine hundred professionals from Abengoa would be moved to this new centre. With the estimated employment creation, approximately 1,100 people will be working there by January 2007. At full occupancy, the centre will house approximately 1,400 professionals, of which more than 50 percent will be graduates.

Businesses being transferred

The businesses that will be transferred are those of an industrial nature and public services, both national and export based. They are defined by innovation and engineering and many of them by their high added value, consistent with vanguard technologies; the most important businesses that will be housed in this centre are those of electronics, computing, telecommunications, electricity, mechanical and those for solar energy and fuel cells.

The information technology companies that will be transferred are Telvent Energía y Medioambiente, Telvent Interactiva, Telvent Tráfico y Transporte, Telvent Outsourcing and Sainsel.

In particular, the R&D&i activities related to electronics, DSP (Digital Signalling Processing), Internet, control systems for electrical, environmental and military applications will all be brought together.

The businesses of the Engineering and Industrial Construction business group that will be transferred are Inabensa, Abentel, Abencor Suministros, Solúcar and Hynergreen.

Likewise, the businesses related to solar energy will be developed with those related to hydrogen technologies and fuel cells from which significant future growth is expected and in which Abengoa is at the forefront of technology.

The bioenergy business group will house the Greencell company as well as the R&D&i activities that are carried out in Europe.

The GIRH human resources management company will also be transferred.

Centre for Excellence in New Technologies

Abengoa will concentrate the R&D&i activities that it carries out in Seville in this unit that will become part of the Technological and Industrial Centre and that aspires to be a global benchmark.

Furthermore, Abengoa has been in conversation with the University of Seville regarding the joint creation of a Technological Institute that would be located in the Centre for Excellence in New Technologies.

The companies

Telvent Energía y Medio Ambiente: Its business is focused on products, systems and services with an intensive use of the modern technologies of digital electronics, real time computing and communications applied to control systems for the energy and environmental sectors.

The Environment Division provides the following services:

• Surface meteorology: Supply, installation and maintenance of instrument networks and hydrological and/or meteorological stations distributed across a specific area, region or country and connected to a control centre via a communications network.
• Remote sensing: Supply, installation and maintenance of high altitude observation networks based on: weather radars; electrical discharge detection networks or lightening networks; radio sounding and satellite weather receivers.
• Aeronautical meteorology: Supply, installation and maintenance of meteorological observation systems in airports based on Automatic airport Weather Observing Systems (AWOS); Low Level Windshear Alert Systems (LLWAS) and in-flight communications on meteorological information (ATIS/Volmet).
• Hydrology: Supply and installation of monitoring and control systems for surface and subterranean water: Measurement of the quantity and quality of non-mains water, management of water resources for hydroelectric production (reservoir management) and hydrological prediction models and flood prevention.
• Air quality: Supply, installation, maintenance and operation of networks comprising instruments, local processing stations, communication networks and control centres for monitoring atmospheric contamination including housing, instrumentation, local processors, communications, control centre and software, Scada, GIS and special applications.

The Energy Division provides the following services:

• Remote Control Energy Systems and Fixed Installations: These types of remote controls may include diverse railway plant and metropolitan railways such as traction electrification plant (electrical substations and overhead power cable isolators), installations of the energy distribution network to railway signal lines fed with 2,200 volts of alternating current and fixed installations of metro stations and tunnels (lighting, ventilation, escalators, accesses, fire protection, etc.) The GIS (Global Information System) may be integrated. Based on Scada Oasys and Saitel 2000.
• Substation control and protection systems: Systems for the control, automation and protection of electrical substations for both transport and distribution. The possible configurations range from a conventional remote unit (Saitel) to distributed systems based on Saitel equipment with local operation position with Scada Iceberg/Iris/Oasys, designed and manufactured in all cases by Telvent E.M.A. (SYCOS). Occasionally, it includes the provision of the digital protection equipment of third party manufacturers, some of them under specific partnerships.
• Control and management of distribution networks: Systems for control, measurement gathering and management of distribution networks, including from the control centre to the network field equipment. The system's scope can be highly varied, including one or various of the following elements: Central office or a network area with basic Scada functions; additional functions for calculation, simulation and support (DMS); network management applications (SGD), with geographical information systems (GIS) as well as connection with other corporate systems of the electric company (commercial, maintenance, brigade management, etc.); control equipment and services and electrical apparatus with integrated control equipment (post switches).
• Control and monitoring systems for combustion plants: Control and/or monitoring system for plant based on combustion processes including conventional thermal plants, combined cycle, co-generation, solid urban waste, biomass, etc.
• Control of hydraulic power plants: Control systems, measurement gathering and automation of hydraulic power plants, based on Saitel equipment, with local operation position with Scada Oasys DNA, all designed and manufactured by Telvent (Hycos).

The private networks division provides the following services:

• Networks for Remote Control: Engineering, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of communications systems to allow the sending of monitoring and control signals between remote telecontrol network stations and the network control centre.
• Corporate networks: Engineering, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of communication systems to allow the bulk sending of data, in which voice channels, interfaces between exchanges, high capacity data for telematic networks, remote management systems, remote control data etc. may all be incorporated. Normally, a strong infrastructure is also required in order for network supports such as high masts, housing, cable pipelines etc.

Telvent Interactiva: Its activity is focussed on information technologies based on geo-referential platforms for management of clients' assets. Telvent Interactiva offers the following products: TiWorks, specialised in the public sector and logistics, conceived from RILCO y EWS. As a software product it is being continuously updated and Ti-SGD, specialised in the utilities sector. Components: Wireless Field Work Force Management Solution For Utilities (WFM) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or DMS management. The latter is a variable-format product with coverage in the electricity market and the oil and gas market.

Telvent Tráfico y Transporte: Its business is focussed on an extensive range of transport payment system products (cancellers and auto-sale machines) with the capacity for universal treatment of travel certificates, in Edmonton, ISO-2 and Contact-less formats (chip without contact).

Telvent Outsourcing: Its business is focussed on technological services for information systems. Telvent Outsourcing offers engineering services for information systems and communications by outsourcing approach including project management, installation, operation, monitoring, administration, maintenance, security, technical assessments, incident resolution, systems and connectivity skills in addition to design and development. It is also involved with the development of information systems for business processes of corporate activities.

The objective is to support the client?s business transformation by providing technology innovation capabilities and alignment with their business strategies.

Sainsel: Its business is focussed on military and civil maritime control systems and equipment. Sainsel offers a broad variety of services: Tactical simulation, Sitac, CONAM consoles and supports, avionics displays, modernisation of existing ships, Maritime/Coastal/Harbour traffic control systems: NEPSYS, training simulators, GPS differential systems, civil simulation, GMDSS communications system, maritime fleet management, SIFISH fishing control centre, Terrestrial fleet transport management system (Sigot), control and command equipment systems and CN235 Cabin remote simulator systems.

Inabensa: Its activity is focussed on six significant areas: electrical installations, mechanical installations, instrumentation and maintenance, railways, communications and manufacturing. These six areas encompass the following services: the construction of railways and rectifier substations (design, engineering, equipment manufacture, frameworks and housing and electromechanical assembly), overhead contact system (design, engineering and electromechanical assembly. Conventional 3,000 DC voltage overhead power cabling. 25 KV AC overhead power cabling), HV and MV substations (design, engineering, equipment manufacture, frameworks and housings and electromechanical assembly), energy distribution (electromechanical assembly of MV, HV, EHV and fibre optic lines), conventional electric, eolic, co-generation, biomass energy generation plant (electromechanical assembly, substation transformers, MV distribution frameworks and housing), gas (gas pipelines and channels: pipelines and electromechanical assembly, regulation and measuring plants, distribution projects, connections and stations. Put in operation), construction (Electrical housing installations and LV power and lighting, autonomous plant, special installations, manufacture of frameworks and electrical housing. New products: integral maintenance of banking entities and unusual buildings), mechanical assembly (design, engineering and assembly of mechanical plant), instrumentation (systems design and engineering. Installations and electrical assembly of instruments), maintenance (electromechanical maintenance and control works. Maintenance of MV tension lines), airports (runway and approach lighting. Platform illumination. Local networks. Installations), industrial plants (design, engineering, manufacture of frameworks and housing and electromechanical assembly. Integral maintenance), MV housing and distribution frameworks (design, engineering and manufacture), civil works and/or laying of fibre optic networks (construction and installation of civil works infrastructure, fibre optic cable junctions and connections for carrying out trunk connections, distribution rings and client accesses), construction of hybrid fibre coaxial networks, installation of active and passive network elements and node activation), construction of sites for mobile and wireless telephony (engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of infrastructures for GSM, LMDS/WLL and UMTS network base stations) and supply and installation of digital radio links (sales, including installation, of digital microwave DE radio link equipment, primarily with the Harris brand). Also radio link maintenance service for this brand as well as the installation of other manufacturers' radio links).

Abentel: Following an important restructuring that has involved the transfer of many of its developments to Inabensa, Abentel is focussing its business on engineering, design, construction, installation, putting into service, operation and maintenance of telecommunications networks and systems. Abentel offers the following products: Lines and cables (network creation and operation), installations and residential and preferential maintenance, installations and maintenance of companies and preferential clients, integral sector maintenance, engineering and design of external plant installations (Telefónica), digital conversion of the network registry, construction and maintenance of hybrid fibre coaxial networks - HFCs (cable call network operators aimed at television and offering telephony and Internet services), engineering and design of hybrid fibre coaxial networks and client installations for hybrid fibre coaxial cable network operators (HFC).

Abencor Suministros: Its business is focussed on marketing conventional electrical material to the end client or via engineers and the promotion of new products for which we are their sales network. Warehouse logistics and product distribution. Abencor offers the following products: traditional electrical products, CATV, electronics, externalization, telecommunications products and railway transport products.

Solúcar: Its business is focussed on the promotion of solar plants for the purpose of assimilating technologies that will shortly allow both the promotion of proprietary projects at a national level for electricity generation under a special scheme and turn-key execution, but with proprietary technology, of projects for both national and international clients. Solúcar employs two means for the production of electrical energy: thermal and photovoltaic. Thermal energy production is carried out via central receiver and heliostat field, cylindrical-parabolic collector plant and parabolic disk systems.

Hynergreen: This recently formed company's objective is the organisation and operation of businesses and activities related to electrical energy production using fuel cells in its different technologies, as well as the production, storage and use of clean hydrogen and its integration with renewable energy sources. This includes the design, assembly, construction, operation and maintenance of fuel cell based plant as well as their components.

It carries out research, development and technological innovation tasks along four main lines: new applications for fuel cells using different technologies; installations for telecommunications, residential applications, transport etc.; development of new fuel cells: reversibles, compact or direct and the production of renewable hydrogen as well as its storage and use and the integration of renewable energy sources for the production of hydrogen via solar or eolic energy. It is currently developing projects at a national and international level in each of these lines.

Other more specific objectives in which it is also working are stationary electricity generation plants (up to 0.5 megawatts), based on PEMFC, PAFC and SOFC fuel cells. Energy systems based on PEMFC fuel cells for transport; production, treatment, purification and hydrogen storage systems and the integration of renewable energy sources with the hydrogen vector.

Greencell: Greencell's objective is the organisation and operation of businesses and activities related to hydrogen production from bioethanol as well as formulation and suitability of bioethanol so that it is receptive to conversion into renewable hydrogen. It places special emphasis on the advancement of research and development in its business objective which involves both the analysis of possible alternatives for hydrogen production from bioethanol (search for catalysts, efficient processes, development of processing and reforming systems for the re-formation of alcohol, etc.) and the analysis of bioethanol production and its associated processes, in order to supply the subsequent hydrogen production.

Its objective is to achieve this hydrogen production both in transport associated systems (for example, vehicles) as well as static plants (for example, hydrogen providing service stations).