The Italian Water Industry

The pursuit of excellence is one of the most important drivers in private companies’ strategy and a crucial factor to succeed in the market; this is not always the case amongst utilities. By operating in regulated or semi-regulated markets, utilities confront with relatively weaker competitive forces and sometimes rest on their laurels. However, given the nature of the services they provide, they are subjected to different pressures such as accountability to citizens and governments for the quality of their activities, imposed tariffs, as well as particular environmental regulations and restrictions. The objective of this first chapter is to understand whether there are examples of business excellence among utilities and what were the enabling factors making them possible, with specific reference to the Italian water industry. To this end, we will briefly introduce the concept of excellence, analyze the primary strategic challenges water utilities are facing, describe the characteristics of the Italian water sector and see how some companies address the major problems connected with their business.

An innovative approach was adopted by the Italian Parliament in 2011, together with the Government of Premier Monti, when it was decided that they would extend the competences—powers and functions—of the existing independent regulator for electricity and gas, Autorità per l’energia elettrica e il gas (AEEG), to the water sector (subsequently renamed AEEGSI, to include the reference to “sistema idrico” in the acronym). A further innovative approach was developed by AEEGSI in the definition of Italian water regulation. The present paper is a first illustration of both approaches, since my personal belief is that the degree of innovation of the second (in regulation) is deeply related to the degree of innovation of the first (in legislation). In Section “The Reasons for the Innovative Approach in Legislation”, some of the main reasons underlying the reform that was approved at the end of 2011 will be presented; in Section “The New Regulatory Framework”, a brief description of the functioning of the new regulatory governance is reported; in Sections “First Regulatory Period (2012–2015)” and “Second Regulatory Period (2016–2019)”, the regulatory approaches and the respective outcomes with reference to the first and second regulatory periods are illustrated; Section “Non-regulatory Outcomes of Independent Regulation” contains some observations related to the other outcomes achieved by means of independent regulation; and Section “Next steps” reports the next regulatory steps to be considered.

The Italian Integrated Water Supply system suffers from major infrastructural deficiencies, and many of its water mains and wastewater treatment plants are inadequately maintained. It has been estimated that there is a need for €25.3 billion in investments over the next 5 years in order to realign the situation to EU standards. The uncertain and changing regulatory framework, the high number of small operators, and a wide range of risk factors associated with the water industry have been preventing investments for years. The establishment of an independent national regulator in 2011 represented a key turning point for the industry, since it positively contributed to restoring investors’ confidence. Despite the recovery phase being experienced, with about €1.5 billion in investments paid in tariffs in 2015, the water industry still needs additional forms of financing to quickly bridge the gap with other European countries. If, at the beginning of the 2000s, bank loans and project financing were the most common financial tools, in recent years, new instruments have come along, moving investors towards new forms of financing. A remarkable growth in bond issues has occurred, as the newly established regulatory framework has encouraged the spread of ad hoc tools such as mini bonds, hydro bonds and project bonds. Furthermore, private equity funds and public funding currently represent effective means to channel resources into the water industry. Despite the renewed interest in the water sector, concrete steps forward can be taken in order to provide a more attractive market for investors. Measures aimed at reducing the high fragmentation, establishing steady governance, cutting red tape, and reducing risks factors should hence be further developed and implemented.

The Italian water sector, different from other utility-based businesses such as electricity and gas, has been characterized by an unclear regulatory framework for many years. The absence of a structured tariff scheme has discouraged foreign investment. The regulatory reform introduced by the Electric Power and Natural Gas Authority (AEEGSI) in 2011 has boosted interest in the industry. The introduction of a tariff scheme, centered on the full recovery cost principle, improved profitability, financial strength and investment capacity of the companies. The improved performance, in turn, is also attracting foreign and financial investors, who could play a key role in closing the infrastructure gaps that characterize the Italian water networks compared to other European countries.

The paper describes the design, implementation process and results obtained by Azienda Servizi Ambientali (ASA) S.p.A in the construction of the boron and arsenic treatment plants in order to ensure compliance with the regulations in force. The following pages also examine the main aqueduct, installation and management results consolidated after several years of operation of the plants.

Novareti S.p.A. is the Dolomiti Energia Holding Company, which deals, for Trento and 12 other Municipalities, with the management of network services, including integrated water services. The problem of arsenic pollution became contingent following the reduction of regulatory limits introduced by the Legislative Decree 31/2001, with the decrease of the concentration limit from 50 to 10 μg/l. Regarding the area managed by Novareti, the water from two deep sources was determined to be outside the parameter, both characterized by the presence of geologic arsenic, a natural occurrence. Their compact range and their strategic high altitude position led Novareti to undertake initiatives aimed at lowering the arsenic levels below legal limits; later, in agreement with the municipal administration, it was decided to go further by aiming to achieve a halved concentration limit compared to the legislation (5 μg/l). After studying different alternatives for arsenic removal, Novareti identified their best opportunity in resin adsorption technology. Two plants were realized, which turned out to be the biggest in Italy for their range (75 and 50 l/s) and complexity, that took advantage of the principle of adsorption of resin with iron hydroxide, a type of adsorbent material that allows for regeneration, namely the restoration of the initial property through complicated chemical-hydraulic operations. The realization of these two plants required an important economic effort, motivated by the opportunity to maintain two strategic sources, in a context such as this one, in which all possible water supply sources must be preserved.

In Italy, the entry into force of the new limit on hexavalent chromium, foreseen for December 2018, makes it necessary for water utilities to find the best technologies to reduce hexavalent chromium concentration in drinking water below 10 µg/l. The present work conducts a review of the technologies traditionally considered to be among the Best Available Technologies for hexavalent chromium removal and presents the results obtained from the application, on a real scale, of two of these technologies: nanofiltration membranes and WBA resins.

The growing interest in the monitoring of emerging pollutants like Glyphosate and AMPA in drinking water led Veritas Laboratory to buy a high performance IC chromatograph coupled to an HRMS Orbitrap detector with the aim of determining these analytes by direct injection. That means without derivatization and/or preconcentration despite reaching an instrumental limit of quantification of nanograms/l, which is essential for ensuring compliance with the regulatory limits of most pesticides. Performing analysis by direct injection is a very important requirement for Veritas Laboratory, which analyses about 20,000 samples per year. Besides being simpler, much less expensive and less time-consuming, direct injection also minimizes the chances of contamination or bad recovery due to any sample handling that may occur. In relation to the detection, a high-resolution mass spectrometer with Orbitrap technology was used in order to isolate the molecular masses with accuracy and precision at very low concentrations. This choice was made because the high sensitivity of the instrument (molecular masses to 4th decimal digit) allows it to work in full-scan mode, i.e., recording all detected masses, within an established range, that enter the detector in a file. Thus, the instrument can perform a kind of “snapshot” of the sample from which analytes’ masses can be retrieved, even after the analysis has been completed. Up to now, Veritas Laboratory has been the first lab performing analysis of Glyphosate and AMPA in drinking water by direct injection, through an IC/HRMS system.

Managers and engineers working on drinking water management are well aware that the design and development of a district metering area (DMA) should aim to allow constant monitoring and control of all parameters affecting the dynamics of the distribution system, in terms of both supply and demand, in order to increase efficiency as much as possible, which means serving citizens with enough good quality water at an equitable cost using the minimum resources, energy and effort. Reliable, pervasive access to measurement is vital in order to enable this. This rationale led the European Union’s Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME) to fund the WETNET Eco-Innovation Project, the aim of which was to bring to the market a reliable, low-cost integrated system to help the water industry control water grids better and reduce energy costs and GHG emissions, making the most of their resources. The WETNET system includes a low-cost, reliable in-pipe flow meter that will be routinely and extensively placed in pressurized water networks, data collection and transmission devices, and sophisticated software for analysis, prediction, management and control.

Acqua Novara.VCO is a water company organized into 14 operational headquarters managing the integrated water service in 139 municipalities of the provinces of Novara and VCO (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola), which correspond to an area of 3,600 km² and a population of 450 thousand inhabitants (700 thousand in summer) for 38 million m³ a year. Only 1% of water consumption is intended for households, 50% for agriculture and 49% for industrial uses and energy production. The water supply network consists of more than 4,000 km of pipes, 833 sources, 191 treatment plants, 568 tanks and 97 pumping stations. The needs of Acqua Novara.VCO were the optimization of energy consumption, the reduction of network losses, the centralization in a single control room of the various plants built over the years with different technologies, and the quality and reliability of the data. In order to meet these needs, Schneider Electric collaborated with Acqua Novara.VCO, providing technical support and implementing an integrated solution that includes: ClearSCADA, a centralized supervision and remote-control system; RTU SCADAPACK for integration and concentration with DNP3/IEC104/Modbus protocols; PLC for the integration of purification systems; Telemecanique sensors for remote access control; Aquis for modeling and analysis of hydraulic networks; and WMS for leakage management and integration with ERP, GIS and billing systems. The realization of this complete Smart Water System allowed for the control of leakages in districts and distribution networks and the creation of automatic water reports and business intelligence, and will also reduce energy consumption by 20% and recover 6 million m³/year of water.

Acquedotto Pugliese S.p.A. (better known by its acronym AQP) is one of the largest historic Italian companies and among the largest European players, in size and complexity, in the management of integrated water systems. It is a large public company, entirely controlled by the region of Puglia, with revenues in 2016 of 550 million euros and 16 million in profits. ASECO S.p.A. is a leading composting company. Acquedotto Pugliese S.p.A. serves a population of over 4.5 million people living in an area that affects three regions of southern Italy: Puglia, Campania and Basilicata. In order to meet the water demand coming from the different territories, AQP manages a highly complex water system, which consists of supply plants (purification works, water treatment plants and wells), raising plants and interconnected water carriers. The power of such a system is guaranteed by a variety of sources, such as springs, wells and large reservoirs. The optimal management of this complexity necessitates a decision support system: Acquedotto Pugliese represented the whole supply and transportation system within a model that uses the software Aquator, an application of Oxford Scientific Software (A Guide to Aquator Aquator, Water Resources Modelling Software by Oxford Scientific Software. Oxford Scientific Software Ltd, 2016). The information resulting from such software is used to:

The Novareti project is based on the study of the districtualization of the water supply network of Trento and consists in implementing an advanced controller and a real-time model, which will dialogue between themselves and with the capillary remote control system. The goal is to simulate the network’s behaviour in the future based on real historical consumption data and on all available climatic parameters (temperature, solar radiation and rain), in order to define the optimal structure of the various districts that compose the network in terms of operating pressure and flow rate. The pressure of each district will be at a lower limit, in order to provide the service to all users, but at the same time to minimize water losses and consequent damages. Also, the entire pumping system that feeds the tanks will work, taking advantage and with priority of the sources that are based on alternative energy sources, especially photovoltaic fields dedicated to them. The presence of the real time model will allow for the provision of a series of virtual measures for the advanced controller that will expand the real remote control ones, and will conduct daily water balances, with special attention to the study of the minimum night supplies, in order to report the existence of any leaks in the districts automatically, with consequent automatic activation of the loss search teams. The goal of the entire project is to decrease 25% of water loss and 20% of electrical costs.

The territory of Langhe and Roero, with the town of Alba in the middle, is a unique model for the importance and variety of water supply resources. Nevertheless, without a rational project of connections and interconnections, management of the municipal aqueducts and consortia system would not be safe. Over the years, the companies of the EGEA group have implemented interventions and created works that, in supplying about 200,000 inhabitants, surely have also supported the growth of the area in its expansion from a purely agricultural vocation to the one of International gastronomic and hospitality excellence it enjoys today, as recognized by UNESCO heritage. Today, there are resources from alpine springs, deep wells and surface waters, fully interconnected due to the central fulcrum of the aqueduct system: pumping, transportation and treatment equipment were realized according to the best construction techniques. It all started with the experience of several water technicians within the EGEA Group, under the guidance of Eng. Emanuele Carini, who first wanted and conceived this project. In fact, as far back as 2000, Mr. Carini had already set the full design and the development guidelines of the project in a publication entitled “Il sistema delle acque potabili nell'ambito Langhe-Roero”.

In the 1990s, the Venice City Council made the decision to protect the historic centre with a more reliable fire-fighting system that would provide constant access to water regardless of tide levels, guarantee fire hydrant pressure, and use fresh water instead of lagoon water. A fire risk analysis of the diverse environmental situations that characterize the various areas of the city was also commissioned. Public and private bodies were given the opportunity to connect the internal fire-fighting systems of their buildings to the city network, allowing them to avoid the expensive and invasive work required for the installation of water tanks and pressurization facilities (as well as subsequent maintenance work), while still qualifying for Fire Prevention Certification. Approximately 60% of the historic centre of Venice (including a part of the island of Burano) is now served by this fire-fighting network. So far, 52 km of pipeline (including 2.5 km to Burano) have been laid, seven pressurization units (one in Burano) and about 760 hydrants (including 30 in Burano) have been installed, and over 100 users have been connected to the system. However, certain important areas of the city have yet to be covered by the network: a part of the area in and around Saint Mark’s Square, parts of the Castello, Santa Croce and Dorsoduro districts, and the island of Giudecca. Although the system has reduced the risk of fire in most critical situations, the network must be extended to cover the entire city as soon as possible. Priority must be given to the Saint Mark’s area (currently the subject of a specific study, given its unique characteristics), the architectural and historical value of which is immeasurable.

CAP Group is the 100% publicly-funded company that manages the integrated water service in the metropolitan city of Milan. It provides municipal water and wastewater services to over 2 million inhabitants, with 59 wastewater treatment plants where almost 70,000 ton/year of dewatered sludge is produced. Today’s challenge is to respond to climate change, finding new solutions for the recovery of biofuels (biomethane), nutrients (e.g., phosphorus) and energy by water cycle: this is the basis of our Master Plan for the bio-refineries, part of the #Waterevolution launched by CAP Group. The European Commission has adopted an ambitious new Circular Economy Package to stimulate Europe’s transition towards a circular economy that will boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs. How important are the new series of actions on water reuse? How beneficial could these be for the circular economy? The existing municipal wastewater treatment plants can be renovated and integrated to become multi-purpose urban bio-refineries that serve citizens in the treatment and valorization of municipal waste streams, such as wastewaters and organic waste, towards a coherent urban strategy. Existing anaerobic digesters have residual treatment capacities that allow for the co-digestion of sewage sludge and the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, which will increase the recovery of biofuels (biomethane) and nutrients (e.g., phosphorus) in existing treatment plants. The combination of eco-innovative technologies with anaerobic co-digestion allows for the integrated recovery of biomethane, phosphorus, and biopolymers. In such a scenario, CAP Group can and wants to deliver a circular economy approach. To this aim, CAP Group has defined a territorial Master Plan to implement eco-innovative and energy-efficient solutions for renovating existing wastewater treatment plants close to the circular value chain by applying low-carbon techniques for recovering materials that are otherwise lost. In order to include leading edge sustainable solutions, the Master Plan considers synergic interaction with the major, ongoing innovative actions of European Horizon 2020, such as the “SMART-Plant” project coordinated by the Italian University of Verona. The project was undertaken by CAP Group in August 2016 at the water treatment plant in Niguarda-Bresso (Milan) with the scientific support of the CNR and the technological collaboration of FCA. It consists of the production of biomethane from sludge coming from water treatment plants, as a sustainable, ecological and innovative alternative to the traditional sludge disposal methods. A Fiat Panda Natural Power car will travel 80,000 km using the biomethane produced as fuel by CAP Group.

Water is the most important shared resource across the entire supply chain, yet wastewater is the largest untapped waste category that is definitely a pillar of the Circular Economy as defined by the EU Commission. Nowadays, most water utilities are considering these aspects in their day-to-day management operations and in the yearly investments they are planning according to their specific needs, implementing innovations for urban water treatment. The IREN Group is an Italian multi-utility involved, among other businesses, in the management of the integrated water cycle. IREN is applying the aforementioned approach to recent upgrades designed, deployed and co-founded by Waste Water Treatment Plants in the framework of opportunities for EU funding programmes. This is the case for (i) the Mancasale WWTP project, for which IREN developed and implemented a tertiary process aimed at effluent reuse for agricultural irrigation purposes and (ii) the Roncocesi WWTP project, in which IREN installed an upgrading system in the plant to produce bio-methane through purification of biogas from the sludge treatment line. In the bigger picture, IREN is a partner of the EU-funded project LIFE + called ReQpro, aimed at developing a specific model of water reclamation and reuse for irrigation of high quality crops. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the protection of water resources through efficient reclamation and reuse of wastewater for irrigation of agricultural land, substituting for surface water and groundwater resources. IREN is also a partner of Biomether, an EU-funded project aimed at developing an innovative form of biogas upgrade technology promoting the birth of the bio-methane value chain in the Emilia Romagna Region. In that project, IREN aims to reduce the environmental impact of wastewater treatment plants by offering an alternative solution to wastewater management, overcoming the technological and administrative barriers to the production and use of bio-methane. The industrial circular economy experience obtained by IREN on the specific matter is described in the full version of the paper.

The DEMOSOFC (DEMOnstration of a large SOFC system fed with biogas from Wastewater Treatment Plants) project will be the first industrial-scale European plant to generate electricity from biogas produced during the process of water treatment, using solid oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), with the result being the obtainment of clean energy without the emissions of traditional combustion engines. The Fuel Cell system is an emerging alternative for the cogeneration of electricity and heat from fossil fuels or renewable energy (biogas).

In such a peculiar territory as the City of Milan, endowed with high anthropization levels and high infrastructural density, the definition of a long-term investment strategy for the Integrated Water Service represents a very significant challenge. MM S.p.A., the multiservice company of the Municipality of Milan who is in charge of the IWS management, has developed an integrated strategic approach for entirely covering both the Uses and Sources pillars with reference to the investment included in the current ATO Plan, which will last until 2037. On the Uses side, the articulation of planned interventions has been defined, paying attention to innovation and environmental and social impact mitigation, also considering soft skills and factors that enable investment. On the Sources side, MM has implemented a long-term diversified financial strategy to obtain total coverage for investments up to 2037, avoiding refinancing risk and implementing innovative financial instruments for the Italian water sector, such as long-term amortizing notes listed on a regulated market and an EIB financing based on the EFSI (Juncker Plan) scheme, thus being the first signed EFSI project in Italy solely dedicated to water investments. These actions have also been made possible thanks to the length of its concession scheme and to the evolution of water industry regulation, which has been appreciated by institutional investors.

A2A Ciclo Idrico (A2A Water Cycle) operates in the Italian water distribution industry. It is active in Brescia province, managing around 70 municipalities with an overall demand for water of about 50 million cubic meters served per year. A2A Ciclo Idrico is part of A2A, a multi-utility listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, operating in Energy, Waste and other services of public interest. A2A Ciclo Idrico’s history starts in 1933, when Brescia Municipality decided to entrust water distribution to the internal company that was already managing other services of public interest, a company would later come to be known as ASM (Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati). In the first year, the newly created water division counted 4786 users and a network of about 200 km; between 1950 and 1990, the company grew consistently, along with Brescia’s economic development. In 1994, law 36/1994 defined the framework for integrated management of the water cycle, from clean water uptake and distribution to drainage and depuration. In 2006, law 152/2006 further specified requirements for integrated water cycle management efficiency and effectiveness. In 2007, Brescia’s ASM and AEM (the equivalent multi-utility in Milan) merged to create A2A, and the water division of ASM was renamed A2A Ciclo Idrico. Considering the results of the Referendum of June 2011 that cancelled the possibility of a direct remuneration of invested capital in water distribution services, in the subsequent years (2011–2016), the Authority of Electricity, Gas, Integrated Water System (AEEGSI) significantly reviewed regulation regarding the remuneration of water distributors. The new regulation defined a tariff scheme that varied depending on the investment required to guarantee high infrastructure quality and Operational Costs. Finally, in 2016, the AEEGSI introduced a set of penalties linked to the quality of commercial services to steer distributors towards improvement in reading and invoicing processes and in customer relationship management. In A2A’s opinion, the direction taken by the Authority AEEGSI is a signal that in the near future, regulation will favor those companies that are able to provide a high quality service to users through the most efficient processes. This article describes how A2A Ciclo Idrico wants to address this challenge with a turnaround program aimed at significantly improving its efficiency and increasing its investing capacity at a higher pace, in order to accelerate the alignment of the asset base to the new level of quality requirement.

The complexity and constraints in which the public administrations have to operate have greatly increased over the last twenty years. It is common (and established) that public administration and public companies in Italy have not been able to understand this change, sometimes assuming a defensive and conservative approach. The ability (and willingness) to translate traditional principles that inform public policy in organization and management models based on performance measurements is missing. The objective of this work is to offer a report of what has been done and a few thoughts on what, based on experience, should not be done. This is framed in the specific changes within integrated water management, highlighting that the model, in the opinion of the writer, is a practical tool that defines and achieves the integration and industrial development processes and their accompanying public service. It is a valid response to the needs of every modern company acting within the market, which is fully projected into the challenging dimension of the Industry 4.0. The work supports the wish to promote a better understanding among stakeholders (institutions, shareholders, investors, customers, suppliers, and, more broadly, territories), as well as in the community of professionals.