Acea: smart city target for innovation day 2021

Digitization, cybersecurity, green energy;

but also electric mobility and circular economy.

These are the themes at the center of the second edition of Acea Innovation Day, “Builders of the future”, an event dedicated to the themes of innovation, scenarios and new industrial models that are emerging after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The works were opened by the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, at the Salone delle Fontane dell'Eur.

Among the various panels, the chairman of Acea Michaela Castelli, the CEO Giuseppe Gola, the ceo of Cisco Italy Gianmatteo Manghi, the general manager of Ibm Italia Stefano Rebattoni, the chief technology officer of Leonardo Massimo Tedeschi, the energy and Accenture utility Claudio Arcudi, the Google cloud Italy country manager, Fabio Fregi.

In the second part of the day, the Acea managers spoke with Luciano De Propris, sustainability & open innovation manager of the Elis consortium, Stefano Molino, head of the accelerator fund Cdp Venture Capital Sgr, Davide Dattoli, ceo of Talent garden and Alberto Onetti , president of Mind The Bridge. The works were closed by Ivan Vigolo, chief innovation & information officer of the Acea Group.

Among the topics at the center of the debate also the resilience of the networks, to manage the growth of electricity demand and fight against climate change, together with the role of utilities which, with the support of technological players, can play an important role in the transformation of cities. in smart cities. "The challenge - Acea explains in a press release - is the creation of an ecosystem and a community of innovators, which act together to accelerate the process of technological evolution of infrastructures with the aim of developing the competitiveness of businesses and offering more efficient services. ". The more than 50 projects on which Acea is working in the field of innovation go in this direction, some of which were illustrated in detail during the event.In the field of electricity distribution, the company has adopted satellite photos and drones that reduce C02 emissions for grid monitoring. For the identification of faults on the medium voltage, instead, a system based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

For water, the reference model is that of the Smart Water Company, characterized, thanks to the digitization of the network, by an even more responsible and sustainable management of the water resource.

On the electric mobility front, Acea explains that it has launched a plan which provides for the installation of 2,200 electric columns by 2024 and that it has activated an app that allows charging to be managed from over 10,000 authorized points in Italy.

For the circular economy, Acea is working on proximity composting, thanks to a zero km mini-plant equipped with sensor technology.

All these projects, the company underlines, are part of the development strategies envisaged by the 2020-2024 Business Plan, which has allocated 615 million euros to investments in innovation and technology.

For Acea, innovation is "fundamental, because it does not only concern new technologies, but also process innovation, integration of different businesses. For us it is an integral part of the business", explained the CEO of Acea, Giuseppe Gola, on the sidelines of the event. "As part of the development of smart cities - he continued - we believe we can play a fundamental role, in the city of Rome, but also in the other cities in which we operate, with the support of innovation".

Of the same opinion, the president of Acea, Michaela Castelli, who underlined how the company has "invested a lot in recent years. The industrial plan for the next three years speaks of 615 million only for innovative projects".

"Much of what there is in terms of innovation in companies like ours is not seen, concerns the smartization of networks, electricity and water, in an attempt to seize the opportunity that Europe is offering us", he explained. the president, also observing how the NRRR is "an opportunity to be exploited to bring the same logic back into an ordinary regime".

In collaboration with:

Acea