Increasingly at the forefront in renewable energy sources, with a focus on material recovery and network efficiency
The Group strives for excellence in its operating performance in terms of reliability, quality and safety of services offered, promoting continuous maintenance activities of company plants, the use of the BAT (Best Available Technology) and the application of innovative tools and technologies.
In line with the Strategic Plan, Waste Business Unit further strengthened its presence along the supply chain in 2022, increasing its capacity for material treatment and recovery and biomass energy production. Two plants for the treatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) were inaugurated in 2022.
One in in Giussago - Lacchiarella (PV) that allows the treatment of about 100,000 tonnes of waste and the other at the Cavaglià (BI) site with 60,000 tonnes per year of authorized treatment capacity. Work continued in 2022 on the flue gas treatment system (with the installation of an innovative system to further reduce emissions) and the heat recovery system from combustion gases at the Brescia waste-to-energy plant.
In 2022, energy production was characterized and influenced by the strong macroeconomic imbalances resulting from the post-pandemic economic crisis and the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In this context, the decarbonization process undertaken by Energy - Generation and Trading Business Unit for its own plants clashed with the need to ensure a stable and constant supply of energy to the country; for this reason, the San Filippo del Mela and Monfalcone plants, fuelled by fuel oil and coal respectively, resumed operations in 2022.
In 2022, A2A consolidated its position among the leading operators in the generation of electricity from renewable sources in Italy acquiring the Italian wind companies Daunia Calvello and Daunia Serracapriola, Mimiani and Montegrighine located in Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia, respectively, for a total capacity of 205 MW. The photovoltaic plants acquired in Puglia and Lazio are De Stern and Cerveteri, for about 19 MW in total. In addition, A2A acquired a further portfolio in Spain of 30 MW wind (in Catalonia) and 10 MW solar (in Andalusia).
The Smart Infrastructures Business Unit is responsible for developing and maintaining the Group infrastructures. At the end of 2022, the Group was awarded a grant of no less than 160 million euro as part of the NRRP 'Strengthening the Smart Grid' call. The outcome of the call for tenders consolidates the process of adapting Unareti's electricity grids to the new requirements for energy transition, the electrification of consumption and the development of distributed generation from renewable sources. This important financing will allow the construction of seven new Primary Stations, the modernization of 100 km of the medium-voltage network in the municipality of Milan and three new reactive energy compensation plants to be built by the first half of 2026.
In 2022, the new primary substation in San Cristoforo in Milan was inaugurated. Primary substations serve to ensure the resilience of the city's electricity grid, to distribute energy in an integrated and capillary manner and to increase the reliability of the networks. After that of Rozzano, San Cristoforo is the second of 14 primary substations to be built in Milan by 2030 (Unareti's Ten-Year Plan). San Cristoforo also provides power (about 17 MW) for the new M4 metro line and the charging hub (6 MW) for ATM's 'Giambellino' electric buses.
In addition, thanks to the installation of three STATCOM compensators in three primary substations connected to the National Transmission Grid in Milan in strategic positions the degrees of reliability, security
and flexibility of the national energy system were increased.
The project will impact the local distribution system by enabling a total electrification increase of 43.06 MW, benefiting 616,000 end users.
Some 2021 numbers
18,160GWh
Electrical energy produced and put into the grid
2,957GWh
Thermal energy produced and put into the grid
56Mm3
Water supplied to consumers
~1.9milion tonnes/year
Material treatment and recovery
Actions
District Heating Plants and Networks
In 2022, through A2A Calore & Servizi, A2A acquired SEA Energia, the company wholly owned by SEA that supplies electricity and heat to the two airports of Milan Linate and Milan Malpensa. The transaction resulted in the acquisition and management by A2A of the Linate cogeneration plant and the Malpensa trigeneration plant, and is a long-term partnership aimed at fostering the decarbonization process of the two Milan airports.
In 2022, Gelsia, a company of the AEB Group, completed the revamping of obsolete cogeneration motors at the Seregno power plant and carried out work on the new energy plant for a large nursing home in Lissone. The new plant will make it possible to optimize heat production processes and satisfy a large part of electricity
consumption, reducing withdrawal from the grid using energy cogeneration. This will ensure 65% coverage of
electricity consumption requirements and 40% coverage of heat consumption requirements. On the sustainability front, the new plant will save 125 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
E-Mobility
In 2022, more than 320,000 charges were carried out in the more than 400 charging columns managed by A2A (of which more than 200 installed in 2022).
This has resulted in almost 30 million km travelled with zero emissions and the avoidance of over 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
In 2022, A2A E-Mobility and Enel signed a charging network interoperability agreement to allow customers to charge their vehicles at around 15,000 charging points across the country.
A2A E-Mobility has also played a leading role in the A2A Group's ambitious fleet renewal project, reaching a quota of 700 electric vehicles by 2022, the highest in Italy among large companies. Vehicle charging will be ensured by a network of 1,200 charging points installed in 90 A2A Group locations or plants, 310 of which in the Brescia Lamarmora HUB alone.
Cybersecurity
The A2A Group has an organizational unit that provides continuous oversight of cybersecurity management.
As regards business continuity, 2022 was characterized by the implementation of a Business Continuity Management System and the promotion of training activities aimed at disseminating the main concepts of business continuity to all employees.
In particular, A2A is the first multi-utility in Italy to obtain ISO 22301 Certification, which this year focused on the specific scope of critical business processes such as Customer Services, Supplier Services, Energy Management and Finance. The Group plans to continue on this path and certify further high-impact business
processes/companies in the next three years (2023-2025).
Useful resources
Services
A2A S.p.A. - P.I. 11957540153