Venturini, CEO of Enel Green Power: "We are the new energy"

The revolution has already started and Francesco Venturini, managing director and general manager of Enel Green Power (Egp), is fully aware that he is at the center of a global change in the way electricity is produced. So much so that he is the first to state, without too many preambles: “We are the new energy”. He has recently presented the 2015-19 strategic plan to investors and analysts and this is an opportunity to explore some aspects with FIRSTonline in an all-round interview in which he anticipates that, having confirmed the two Americas as areas where to concentrate the expansion of the next few years, the choices on new markets in Africa and Asia “will materialize in the next three months: both in terms of companies to be acquired and projects to be developed. We are working on a mix of situations. Big races are being prepared in North Africa and India. And we will be there."
 
50% of the world's increase in electricity consumption by 2030 will come from renewable sources. This is 5.500 billion "green" kilowatt hours. Until recently, such estimates would have been unthinkable. What is happening?
 
“They are Bloomberg estimates and this is the framework within which we operate. It is happening that the growth programs of all producers are shifting to renewable sources. Changes like this have already happened at least 4 or 5 times in the last 150 years: from wood, to hydro, gas and nuclear, and now mostly wind and sun. Until recently there was talk of alternative energies but that adjective no longer makes sense: today wealth is generated precisely in green production and intelligent distribution and services. Enel had a long eye when, in December 2008, it founded EGP: it will be this that will contribute, together with smart grids and the offer of new integrated services for customers, to the Enel of the future”.
 
What is EGP's contribution to the group's EBITDA?

“We contribute around 2 billion to the group's 15,5 billion Ebitda. We are still relatively small but our generation capacity has more than doubled in the six years since our foundation. This gives us a strategic role in the group's plans. We are replacing generation capacity: with our 9,6 Gigawatts, today we represent about a tenth of Enel's total capacity, but within the time frame of the plan we will reach 16 Gigawatts, net of sales in Portugal and elsewhere. The business model of the electricity sector is radically changing. In this new framework, my task is to create value for shareholders by continuing to develop and manage projects but also by selling and buying assets when convenient".
 
In the list of transfers there are the 640 megawatts of wind power in Portugal. The CEO of Enel, Francesco Starace, has indicated a value of around 1 billion including also the gas upstream. Can you be more precise? Will other assets follow Portugal?
 
“I can't give figures in more detail but I can confirm that we will sell if we get a premium in line with our expectations. The expectation is to conclude by the end of the year but without pre-established time objectives. Will Portugal be followed by something else? It is foreseen in the plan, there are considerations to be made on the rest of the portfolio but at the moment we have not identified the assets. The same goes for acquisitions”.
 
EGP's new industrial plan envisages 9,6 billion in investments, of which 8,8 are destined for growth. Where will they go?
 
“Investments in renewables represent 48% of the 18,3 billion that the Enel group will spend on growth over the next 5 years. We will invest above all in wind energy which is the predominant technology from the point of view of cost in relation to the evolution of production capacity even if photovoltaics will grow a lot in the next few years. As EGP we had over 430 MW of photovoltaics in 2014 and we expect to quintuple the capacity with various projects under construction or nearing the start of works. I mention one for all: in Brazil we were awarded a 250 MW solar project on 500 hectares of land. I mention the example because the scale is now on this order of values. As for the prices of renewable energy, excluding Europe, in the rest of the world they are already largely competitive with gas. The market and the industry are in very strong evolution, almost an explosion I would say. In summary, in the future we will have many renewables and very little conventional production. Coal will drop more or less drastically also depending on the decisions that will arise from the Cop 21 in Paris at the end of the year. I am optimistic, something will have to be done to stop global warming and the growth of CO2”.
 
How important are new batteries in this "explosion" of new energy? You have just signed an agreement with the American Tesla…
 
“We have others with Fiamm and Samsung. The last one with Tesla is from a few days ago. Their Gigafactory project and the idea of ​​modular batteries, very similar to those we use today for small household appliances but replicable on a large scale, is very interesting. Batteries are a revolution within a revolution: with their help to stabilize the grid and store energy for the night, it will be possible to produce electricity with 100% renewable sources. On emerging markets this opens up absolutely innovative scenarios also for network architectures. We will have small plants connected with self-sufficient systems. In the rest of the world, other than the advanced one, electrification fluctuates between 30 and 70 percent; 1,4 billion people lack access to electricity and over 3 billion people are without access to modern energy services or are not connected to a reliable grid. It is there that we want to play a role”.