Utilities, what strategy for Italy?

February’s new Top Utilities 2018 Report: environment and innovation win the challenge among utilities
.
Leading the way among companies competing for the award are those that have invested the most in technology, sustainability, research and creativity.

Italy’s top 100 water, environment, and energy utilities consolidate: bill 115 billion, record overall revenue growth. And they invest in digitization and new services. This is the overview contained in the sixth edition of the report Top Utility Analysispresented today in Milan at the Chamber of Commerce. The research analyzes the performance of Italy’s top 100 utilities, public and private, active in the gas, electricity, water and waste sectors, with the aim of providing an overview of the utility industry. The presentation of the annual Top Utility report was also a time for the presentation of awards to Italian companies that have distinguished themselves in the industry.

Investments, multiutilities’ investments grow

Investment in plant, infrastructure, networks and equipment amounted to just over 4.6 billion euros, accounting for 0.3 percent of GDP and 1.6 percent of Italian gross fixed capital formation. This is slightly lower than in 2015 (-1.5 percent). The category with the highest growth in investment is multi-utilities, with 1.65 billion euros in 2016 (+18.1 percent over 2015), accounting for 35.8 percent of the total (up from 29.9 percent). Considering investment in the value of production, it is water utilities that show the highest figure (20.1 percent), with an average investment per inhabitant of 26.2 euros.

Digitization and new services for cities

L’
technological innovation
is a strategic factor for the development of the utility sector, significantly impacting the development of the territory and the quality of life of citizens. Nearly 9 out of 10 companies (89.7 percent) carry out research activities, particularly related to the topic of digitalization. In 2016, 53.8 percent of companies had integrated systems for collecting and managing plant and infrastructure data using
ICT tools
, such as IoT or big data analytics. The goal for utilities is to be able to offer new services to cities: from environmental monitoring systems (air and water quality, hydrogeological safety), to sustainable mobility (electric car charging stations, car sharing, or smart parking services), from energy mapping of cities to the implementation of optimization and monitoring systems for construction sites and work in progress.

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