Iberdrola

Pre-WWII

Iberdrola was created on 1 November 1992, from the merger between Hidroeléctrica Española and Iberduero. Hidroeléctrica Española, also known as Hidrola, had started in 1907, while Iberduero arose from the merger between Hidroeléctrica Ibérica and Saltos del Duero in 1944.

The origin of Iberdrola lies in the Spanish industrialisation in the early 20th century. In 1840, American entrepreneurs founded the Hartford City Light Company, which lead to the incorporation of Energy East on the eastern seaboard of the US, which would much later become Iberdrola USA. Meanwhile, in Bilbao in 1901, Hidroeléctrica Ibérica was established by the engineer Juan de Urrutia. In 1907, Hidroeléctrica Ibérica shareholders created Hidroeléctrica Española to supply Madrid and Valencia. A decade later, Saltos del Duero was founded, opening the country's first hydroelectric facility in 1935, the Ricobayo power plant.

World War I forced the industry to seek new sources of energy and to install large distribution networks. Amid huge instability, US power companies underwent consolidation to decrease their financial uncertainty. The stock market crash of 1929 and the accompanying Great Depression brought many of these companies to the verge of ruin. In Spain, which had experienced a period of economic growth at the start of the 20th century, the industry suffered a severe setback in 1936 whose impact would be felt for the following two decades: the Spanish Civil War abruptly halted development, destroyed facilities and made maintaining the remaining equipment extremely difficult. In the 1940s, Spain experienced extreme difficulty in acquiring technology and materials due to international isolation and soaring prices. The company benefited from the legal and social framework of the francoist dictatorship for its growth in economic and social relevance. Notably, the president between 1935 and 1985 of one of the former mergers, Hidroeléctrica Española, José María de Oriol y Urquijo, was a relevant Spanish nationalist who allegedly declared to have been part in the investigation and prosecution of more than 80,000 people in the Basque Country.

Post-WWII

In 1944 Hidroeléctrica Ibérica and Saltos del Duero merged to form Iberduero.