Ariadna’s origins go back to a stage when the company was focused on developing electronic devices to identify and map low-voltage networks. In the 1990s, that expertise led to the creation of the ILF15 device, capable of identifying feeders and phases without interrupting supply, marking an important milestone in the sector. Building on that foundation, the company has evolved towards digital solutions, drawing on its experience with real grids to drive digitalisation and create value in power networks.
We are often asked where our name comes from. Have you heard of the legend of the Minotaur of Crete? The myth of the thread of Ariadne? How did Theseus manage to escape the labyrinth? Let us tell you a beautiful story:
In ancient Crete, King Minos received a divine gift: a magnificent white bull. However, he disobeyed the gods and kept it instead of sacrificing it. As punishment, his wife Pasiphae fell in love with the bull, giving birth to the Minotaur, a creature half-man, half-bull. Ashamed, Minos commissioned the architect Daedalus to build a labyrinth to conceal the Minotaur. In this labyrinth, located beneath the palace of Knossos, the beast devoured young Athenians sent as tribute. Theseus, prince of Athens, decided to end this slaughter and volunteered to be sent to Crete to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus and, wanting to help him, gave him a ball of magical thread. She instructed him to unwind the thread as he advanced through the labyrinth so that he could find his way back. Following Ariadne’s instructions, Theseus managed to reach the center of the labyrinth, confront the Minotaur, and kill it. Thanks to the thread, he was able to return to the exit without getting lost. Thus, with the help of Ariadne’s cleverness and his own courage, Theseus freed Athens from the deadly tribute and cemented his heroic reputation in Greek mythology.
With this symbolism, the company Ariadna was born, defining solutions to untangle the electric cable network that is the low-voltage grid, finding that connecting thread between the Secondary Substations and each of the end consumers.
Let’s go back to the last century, in 1992 Hidroeléctrica Española merged with Iberduero to form a new company, Iberdrola. Due to the merger of the two networks, the need arose to update the inventory, i.e. to know to which secondary substation, feeder and phase each consumer was connected, especially in the Hidroeléctrica network. In 1994, a project began to develop portable device capable of identifying the feeder and phase of each General Protection Box (GPC) from the Secondary Substation, and this is where Ariadna came in.
After years of analysis, development and joint tests in the field, the ILF15 device was born, a device with its own integrated algorithm, the topology algorithm, capable of carrying out this identification with total reliability on up to 15 different feeders at the same time. Developed with the technologies of the time, it was a milestone at the time, because it was the first device that not only made it possible to identify, without the need to de-energise the feeder, but also the phase to which the meters were connected, at a time when the Smart Grids concept was still taking its first steps. The first devices were marketed in 1999, and some are still in use today. Since then, new versions of the ILF15 have been developed, up to the current ILFG2, which is still as robust and reliable but weighs much less and takes up much less space.
Since our beginnings as designers and manufacturers of electronic devices for the localisation and mapping of distribution networks, we have always sought the new opportunities that new technologies can offer the electric distribution sector. The new energy paradigms, with the integration of sensors in the networks (Smart Grids), and new technologies, have allowed us to go a step further and focus all our innovation on the digitisation and generation of value in the networks. Our extensive experience accumulated over the years in the behaviour of ‘real’ grids gives us a very different approach as a software company, where we develop realistic solutions, always thinking about the real capacity of electricity grids.
We have evolved a lot since then, but these are our origins and we do not want to forget them.
