Generation

The production system of Acea Produzione currently consists of a series of generation plants with total installed capacity of 229.2 MW, composed of five hydroelectric plants (three located in Lazio, one in Umbria and one in Abruzzo), photovoltaic plants, two mini hydro” plants, Cecchina and Madonna del Rosario, two thermoelectric power stations, Montemartini and Tor di Valle; the latter consists of a modern high-efficiency cogeneration plant, replacing the previous combined-cycle plant; the plant was launched for commercial operation on 9 July 2021, allowing the Company to meet the commitments made by Acea Produzione under the capacity market auction award for the 2022 - 2037 period. The power plant in its current configuration consists of three high-efficiency natural gas-fired engines each with an electrical output of 9.5 MW, for a total of 28.5 MW, as well as three integration boilers and 6 storage tanks. In addition to selling electricity to the market during the most profitable hours, the plant provides electricity in SEU to the total electricity users of the adjoining Rome South Treatment Plant and the thermal energy necessary for the supply of district heating service in the districts of Torrino Sud, Mostacciano and Mezzocammino in the Municipality of Rome.

The Company is proceeding with the authorisation process for the installation of 2 new cogeneration units, with a capacity of 1.5 MW each, which will be powered by the biogas coming from the Rome South Treatment Plant and will produce electricity to be fed into the grid and thermal energy that will be supplied to the treatment plant and partly fed into the district heating grid.

Activities to improve the quality of the district heating service continue, with extraordinary maintenance of the district heating grid involving both the renovation of the delivery substations and the replacement of several important sections of piping. In particular, the doubling of the section of piping from the Tor di Valle power plant was commissioned. With reference to the activities put in place to meet the requirements introduced by ARERA relating to technical quality, a toll-free number dedicated to emergency reports was established and the new GIS platform was put online, which enables management, monitoring and reporting of technical interventions carried out on the district heating grid.

In addition to the production assets described above, Acea Produzione owns photovoltaic plants with an installed capacity of 3.1 MWp.

In 2022, the Company generated a volume of 442.4 GWh through the directly owned power plants. During the period, the Company’s production was subdivided into hydroelectric plant production of 326.7 GWh, production from mini-hydro plants of 3.2 GWh, thermoelectric production of 109.6 GWh and photovoltaic production of 2.9 GWh.

With regard to district heating, the Company, through the cogeneration module of the Tor di Valle power plant, supplied heat to the Torrino Sud and Mostacciano districts (located in the south of Rome) for a total of 63.9 GWht, for a total of 3,581 utilities served (194 condominiums and 3,387 real estate units).

The operational management of Ecogena focuses mainly on three areas: i) consulting in the Esco sector and provision of services related to obligations to increase the energy efficiency of third parties (inside or outside of the Acea Group); ii) the supply of energy services through the management of cogeneration (or trigeneration) plants and district heating networks and the sale of energy produced to Customers; and iii) the coordination of Group companies with regard to energy-efficiency projects.

The Ecogena’s production system as at 31 December 2022 consists of a set of cogeneration plants, whose total electrical, thermal and cooling capacity has been reduced as a result of the conclusion in 2021 of the two contracts, decreasing from a total installed electrical capacity of 4 MW to an overall electrical capacity of 1.86 MW. This amount includes the installed capacity related to the second cogenerator mounted at Europarco in 2021, which began operating at the beginning of 2022.

The plants held by the company are entirely located in the Lazio region, some of which are combined with district heating grids. As at 31 December 2022, the Company had achieved a production volume of around 5.2 GWh (electricity), 16.5 GWh (thermal) and 10.6 GWh of refrigeration. Compared with the previous year, thermal energy sold to customers is lower, refrigeration energy is in line, and electricity is up due in part to the activation of the second cogenerator at Europarco.

With reference to the Europarco trigeneration plant, the process of activating and issuing the electrical workshop license for the second 400 kW cogenerator at the site was completed at the beginning of the year. It should be noted that in March 2022, an agreement was signed with Cinecittà Parchi to change the deadline for dismantling to 31 January 2023 for the cogeneration plant. Dismantling of the thermal and refrigeration plants was completed.

With regard to the air conditioning system at Acea’s data processing centre (Cedet), checks and fine-tuning were carried out on the new more efficient system. The last report on the actual energy savings achieved was sent to the Customer and confirmed compliance with the energy performance guaranteed in the Energy Performance Contract (savings of 308 MWh with reference to the year from July 2020 - June 2021). The final consumption of the plant with improved efficiency showed an energy saving of 30% compared to the previous use of the plant.

As part of the activities carried out by Ecogena for Acea Innovation, pertaining to the project for the design, permitting and construction of a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, it should be noted that the installation activities of “WAVE I” of the project have been almost completed, while some installations remain to be completed on locations that have suffered delays due to authorisation in relation to SIMU (infrastructure department of the Municipality of Rome) in the RM V Municipality (for the issuance of licenses). On the other hand, work continues for WAVE II on the ninety-two authorised projects, a good portion of which are completed and others in the process of being completed, as scheduled.

The project documentation required for the WAVE III Services Conference authorisation was also completed and submitted and 51 of 74 projects have been authorised.

With regards to efficiency for residential buildings through tax deductions (ecobonus and earthquake bonus) and in the context of the cooperation developed between Acea Innovation (owner of the business line) and Ecogena, a reduction was seen in the scope of the initiatives identified commercially which did not lead to contracts with end users due to difficulties faced by Acea Innovation receiving loans from the banking system. From an operational point of view, 2022 saw the completion of projects begun in 2021 and additional projects were launched, completing the scope of the work orders (condominiums in Ostia Ovindoli, Gallo and Piccinni) already contracted by Acea Innovation.

In the area of cogeneration, in December 2021, a new contract was signed for energy service through the construction of a 2 MWe plant. In 2022, contracts were signed for construction of the plant and in March the authorisation process began to build the plant in the Province of Varese. The services conference was completed successfully in September 2022 and in October work began, which was still in progress at 31 December 2022.

As described in detail in the section on “Assets held for sale”, at the end of 2021, Acea and Equitix signed an agreement to sell the company that holds the stakes in the companies that own the photovoltaic plants (Acea Sun Capital), to a newly created company to which Acea’s photovoltaic assets already in operation or being connected to the grid in Italy have been transferred.

In June Acea, through the associate AE Sun Capital, inaugurated the largest photovoltaic plant in Basilicata in the “Piana di Santa Chiara” district in the Municipality of Ferrandina, in the province of Matera. The plant is developed on land with a total area of approximately 40 hectares and has an installed capacity of approximately 20 MW, for an annual production of approximately 36 GWh, equivalent to more than 1,830 equivalent hours/year, corresponding to 15 thousand tons of avoided CO2 emissions per year, and is capable of supplying enough energy to meet the annual needs of more than 10,000 households.

In July Acea Solar obtained an “Environmental Impact Assessment” and “Single Authorisation” from the Sardinia Region for the construction of a photovoltaic plant in the industrial area of Ottana, in the municipality of Bolotana (NU). The plant will have an installed capacity of approximately 85 MW. It is scheduled to come into operation in the first half of 2024.

During 2022, acquisitions of companies in the photovoltaic sector continued. Specifically, at the end of July, through the subsidiary Acea Solar, 17 companies of the Powertis Group were acquired; these companies have photovoltaic development projects for approximately 340 MW in Basilicata. These companies are consolidated using the equity method.