Acea group customers: electricity and water services

MORE ACCENTUATED GROWTH IN 2022 OF “PROSUMERS” CONNECTED TO THE ACEA NETWORKS

A prosumer is at the same time a producer and consumer of energy; it partially or totally ensures its own energy supply and transfers any surplus produced to the grid. In the new energy model, prosumers play an increasingly consolidated and widespread role, interacting with both the distributor and the entity in charge of selling/collecting energy. Acea responds adequately to the evolution of the energy model, by developing the capacity of connection, transmission and distribution systems.
As at 31/12/2022, there were 17,993 prosumers active on the energy distribution network managed by Areti: this figure has increased by 14%, from the 15,786 prosumers recorded in 2021, marking a jump compared to the annual growth trend of 8% recorded in the previous three-year period (2019-2021).
The largest number of prosumers (14,736) are qualified as "domestic prosumers", i.e. customers with residential user contracts who are also small-scale energy producers, and 3,257 are qualified as "other uses", i.e. non-domestic users (businesses, professional firms and artisans). About 10,000 of the prosumers on the Acea network are fed Acea Energia customers. The energy fed into the grid by these entities in 2022 is 97.34 GWh (15% more than the 84.43 GWh fed in 2021), of which about 74% is from photovoltaic sources.

ELECTRICITY AND GAS SOCIAL BONUS: SAVINGS OVER € 60 MILLION FOR ELIGIBLE ACEA ENERGIA CUSTOMERS

The payment of the electricity and gas social bonus envisaged for customers in financial hardship and for customers that, due to their state of health, require energy-intensive medical equipment, has undergone legislative changes in the last two years⁵⁹, which, among other things, include the automatic recognition for citizens/households who are eligible of the electricity and gas social bonuses for financial hardship⁶⁰ (while the bonus for physical hardship continues to be managed by municipalities and/or CAF – tax assistance centres). These changes led, in 2022, to another significant increase in the number of users of the bonus (electricity and gas) and to the amounts recognised.
In particular, in 2022, 108,909⁶¹ Acea Energia customers were eligible to benefit from the electricity bonus (standard market service and free market) (around 89% more than the 57,644 customers eligible in 2021), with a financial saving generated for those eligible of around € 51.1 million. In detail, 107,979 bonuses were paid for economic hardship (99% of the total) and 1,102 for physical hardship (state of health), making a total of 109,081, which is higher than the number of beneficiary customers as one customer may benefit from both subsidies.
Similarly to the electricity bonus, ARERA provides for the "GAS bonus", with similar procedures. The number of customers eligible for this bonus in 2022 was 29,752 (19,147 in 2021), representing economic savings equal to about € 9.5 million.
Overall, during the year, the bonus system (both electricity and gas) resulted in savings of around € 60.6 million for Acea Energia customers who benefited from it (this figure in 2021 was € 8.8 million.
In the territory served by the distribution network managed by Areti, which refers to customers served by both Acea Energia and other sellers, in 2022 there was a total of 126,584 customers eligible for the electricity bonus (125,073 for financial hardship, 1,511 for physical hardship), recording an increase of around 38% in the number of those eligible (91,796 eligible for the bonus in 2021). The major changes recorded in the year should be considered mainly in relation to the legislative amendment of the ISEE threshold value for accessing the benefits (from 9,530 for 2021 to 12,000 for 2022).

THE APPLICATION PROCESS OF THE NATIONAL SOCIAL WATER BONUS IN 2022

The social water bonus, implemented by ARERA, provides for a discount for the supply of water to domestic users under ascertained socio-economic hardship, based on specific thresholds of the ISEE indicator and calculated according to family numbers (per capita basis), applying the discounted tariff to the quantity of water required to satisfy the protected amount (about 50 litres/ inhabitant/day). Area Governing Bodies may introduce or confirm further measures of protection for users in financially vulnerable conditions, granting a local “supplementary water bonus”.
From 1 January 2021 the national water social bonuses for financial hardship were automatically recognised for eligible citizens/households, without requiring submission of an application62. The Authority approved the provisions for the management of the transition period to the new automatic recognition system and the application methods⁶³, governing the activities of the territorially competent water operator, such as the identification methods for the water supplies to be subsidised, the quantification criteria and the payment of the bonus to those eligible. The automatic recognition of the bonus involves an exchange of information flows between the Water Operator, Acquirente Unico SpA (the manager of the Integrated Information System) and INPS, assigning to the Operators the responsibility of processing the personal data⁶⁴ required to identify the users and pay the bonuses. The procedure to appoint the Operators as data processors of the data that allow Acquirente Unico to transmit the information of the eligible parties (starting the automatic recognition system) is still being finalised. In 2022, ARERA approved, with resolutions 106/2022 and 651/2022, the “Simplified regulation for the recognition and payment of the 2021 water bonus” and its extension to 2022, but it is still carrying out the adequacy checks on the privacy obligations of the operators and, as a result, is gradually authorising the start of the information flows. Therefore, not all companies of the Acea Group have had access to the information flows required to begin paying the automatic bonus. The main changes made to the operational regulation (envisaged from the bonuses for 2023) reside in:

1. the assumption that the household receiving the electricity social bonus is also entitled to the water social bonus, without further verification by the operator;
2. the communication of the information relating to the ISEE households in receipt of the social bonus – for the relevant year – by the Integrated Information System of Acquirente Unico to the operators;
3. the quantification of the bonus calculated on the standard numbers (3 members) should the operator not know the actual numbers, or if this assessment does not allow for payment of the benefit by the expected deadline (for 2022 equalisation is envisaged within 3 months from the first bonus payment, with recalculation using the effective numbers);
4. the payment of the benefit may be made for direct and indirect (condominiums) users through a one-off cheque or, for direct users only, in the bill.

NATIONAL AND INTEGRATED WATER BONUS USERS FOR ACEA GROUP COMPANIES

In 2022, Acea Ato 2 paid national water bonuses to 179,733 users, for a value of around € 19.8 million and supplementary water bonuses (local) to 4,171 users for a value of € 835,569. The data related to the national water bonuses are much higher than 2021 (8,034 national water bonuses, for a value of around € 354,000), since the Company fully received the envisaged information flows (see the box dedicated to the water bonus application procedure) and applied the automatic payment, which activates without requiring an application, to everyone with an ISEE below the threshold established for 2021 and/or 2022.
Acea Ato 5 communicated that it had received from Acquirente Unico, in July 2022, the information flows essential for recognition of those eligible for the water bonus for 2021 and 2022; therefore, as at 31 December 2022 it had paid national water bonuses to 23,161 users, direct and indirect, which generated an overall financial saving for the beneficiaries of around € 4.22 million.
AdF continued to give visibility to the possibility of accessing the national water bonus and the supplementary bonus through the fiora.it website and by notices posted at “AdF Points”. As for the national water bonus (2021 and 2022), the Company is still waiting to receive the lists of beneficiaries from Acquirente Unico; on the other hand, it paid the supplementary water bonus to 3,576 users, for amounts equal to € 626,472.
Gori, which received the underlying information flows, in 2022 paid the national water bonus to 102,054 users, for a value of around € 4 million (in 2021 bonuses were paid to 21,538 beneficiaries, for an amount of € 880,739).
In 2022, Gesesa published a release via its social channels to provide visibility and information about the procedures on accessing the benefits relating to the water bonus and on the application methods envisaged by the new legislation. However, the Company has not yet received the information flows in preparation for payment of the bonuses.
Considering, on a whole, the data related to the national water bonuses, for the water companies in the scope that were authorised to pay them, upon conclusion of the privacy management checks by the Authority, and the figures of the supplementary water bonuses, where applied, the system generated for the beneficiaries an overall economic saving of over € 29.5 million.