The utility sector, while suffering due to the slowdown in industrial production which led to a drop in demand for energy and related services, proved to be quite resilient in the face of the crisis triggered by Covid. This was revealed by the Workshop of the Agici-Accenture Observatory held on Tuesday 2 February, entitled “What will utilities be like in 2023? A look at the sector after the pandemic”. It came out that the 2020 revenues of Italian utilities fell by 10,4% (in line with that of the national GDP, therefore), but which on the other hand increased the turnover of network operators by 4,8%. The balance sheet for utilities is also heterogeneous: there was a significant reduction for Energy Groups (-12,2%) and a more contained decrease for Multiutilities (-2,1%) and Renewable Groups (-2,4% ).
Investments in the last calendar year dropped by 10% to a total of 15 billion. However, all the other items are encouraging: according to Agici-Accenture, the aggregate EBITDA of Italian operators in 2020 is substantially in line with the previous year, with the sole exception of a few players active in the Oil&Gas sector, and above all a significant increase in aggregate revenues is expected from 2021 to 2023, with an average annual growth of 7,7%. In particular, a strong restart of investments is expected: the main national companies have planned to invest 65 billion euros by 2023 (on average 22 billion a year with a growth of over 40%). Most of these investments, in line with the European decarbonisation goals, will be focused on renewable energy sources and digitalisation.
But not only. As is well known, the green hydrogen business is gaining ground in general the growing role of natural gas emerges and storage systems, to guarantee the stability and flexibility of the electricity sector, especially in view of the revolution in the automotive industry. The encouraging trend also applies at the European level: according to Accenture-Agici, the aggregate investments planned by European operators for the period 2021-2023 amount to 131 billion euros. In general, all utilities, both Italian and European, have shown the ability to adapt to the continuous evolution of the sector in which they operate.
“The utilities – he commented Marco Carta, Chief Executive Officer of AGICI – continue to strengthen their role as an architrave for an economic restart of the country based on sustainability, innovation, circularity and the creation of shared value between companies, territories and people. Italian companies have reacted promptly and forcefully to the current economic crisis and to the stimuli of the European Union by launching strategic plans that are more ambitious than ever before in terms of investments and attention to development and the environment. A coordinated, strong and cohesive economic policy action is needed to transform these ambitions into reality: the managerial, financial and technological resources of the Utilities, in fact, are available here and now”.
“Energy transition and sustainability – he added Claudio Arcudi, Head of Energy & Utilities of Accenture Italy – are the keywords that emerge from the study. Accelerating on these two issues means accelerating the country's economic recovery. In this context, the Energy & Utility sector can and must become the engine of the restart, placing itself not only as a recipient of targeted investments, but also as an enabler of change for the entire ecosystem and, first of all, for the public administration and small and medium-sized companies businesses. By addressing the strategic lines of the PNRR it is in fact possible to redevelop the sector's offer by creating new digital services oriented towards sustainability and efficiency to increase the competitiveness of SMEs and innovate the PA".
And precisely by looking at the energy transition and the sustainability of the infrastructure projects that Italy must necessarily carry out, Massimo Bonato, CEO of Areti (Acea group) focused attention on the Recovery Plan, recalling that “Acea has made proposals for very important interventions for the area in which it is present. It is necessary for companies to be able to work in the right way, with certain rules, because the projects presented are for the benefit of the community and have positive and safe repercussions for the country, for GDP and for employment”.
One of the projects the group is working on is Platone, funded by the EU, to improve the flexibility of distribution networks. “With Platone – Bonato explained during the Webinar – we try to bring flexibility within the reach of distributors, responding to the need to mitigate network congestion. Electricity grids will experience a shock in the coming years, due to the growth of decarbonisation with a greater impact on electricity, such as e-mobility services. This project is aimed at decongesting networks, enabling tools that will also enable small users to participate in the flexibility market. We estimate that with this project you will go to save between 20 and 40% of expansion activities otherwise necessary on our electricity grids, to accommodate the new needs that decarbonization implies".
