Among the activities of the Group, the principal energy consumers are the gas turbines used in the compressor stations that supply the gas pressure needed for transportation (transmission consumption) or for storage (storage consumption) and the vaporisers used at the Panigaglia plant to regasify LNG.
The Company has always used the best technology available to limit energy consumption and it has always installed high efficiency turbines. In particular, fuel consumption by the compressor stations is controlled by Dispatching centre by means of optimisation software systems that make it possible, according the requirements for storage and transportation, to manage the arrangement of the individual compressor stations and the transportation network as efficiently as possible.
In 2009, total energy consumption was 15,330 TJ. The most-used energy source was natural gas, which covered about 92% of the total energy requirement. Other sources included electrical energy (7%) and other fossil fuels (diesel, petrol, LPG) and thermal energy (1%).
Activities carried out being equal (transportation and regasification), electrical consumption in 2009 dropped by about 20% compared to the previous year. This decrease can be attributed above all to a reduction in the gas introduced into the transportation system by customers, which brought about lower usage of the compressor stations, but also to the initiatives put in operation by the company to contain energy consumption.
As part of its Energy Management activities, the Company continued activities aimed at identifying possible actions for rationalising and containing energy consumption. Among these initiatives was a new guideline for energy sustainability of company-owned buildings. Aware of the importance of using renewable sources, during the year, the Company installed three 20-kW photovoltaic systems at the maintenance centres for the transportation network of Tortona, Foggia and Palmi with the objective of providing partial coverage of the electrical energy needs of the buildings. These systems were in addition to the one developed last year in Genoa, which became operational in 2009. Regarding distribution activities twelve pilot photovoltaic systems were also installed, with power outputs between 3 and 6 kW, in the cabins for withdrawal and pressure reduction plants. In addition, the Company installed automation systems to control the power plant in 29 gas pre-heaters in the distribution network still with aim of optimising energy consumption.
distribution activity - energy savings through White Certificates
The Ministerial Decrees of 20 July 2004, as amended, promote “energy-saving” through “white certificates”. The Authority has defined technical and economic regulations for implementing the mechanism, and each year specify national quantitative targets to electricity and natural gas distributors of according to the criteria defined in the decrees.
The “white certificates”, also called Energy Efficiency Certificates (Italian acronym TEE), certify the achievement of energy savings through the application of efficient technologies and systems. They are issued by the Electrical Market Manager (Italian acronym GME) based on certification of the savings achieved, performed by the Authority. Each certificate is equivalent to the saving of one ton-equivalent of petroleum (TOE), which is the traditional unit of measure in energy statements to express all sources of energy by taking into account their heat content. The decrees require that each year mandatory savings objectives be set for electrical energy distributors and natural gas distribution companies.
These quantitative targets increase over time; to achieve them, distributors may:
- implement projects favouring end-users that improve the electrical efficiency of installed technologies. The projects may be carried out directly, through subsidiaries, or through companies operating in the energy services sectors (ESCO’s);
- implement projects designed to save energy in their own manufacturing processes;
- purchase Energy Efficiency Certificates from third parties, covering all or part of their targets. These would confirm the achievement of savings by other parties (other distributors or companies operating in the energy services sector).
The purchase and sale of securities takes place either through bilateral contracts or on the Energy Efficiency Certificates market, organised and managed by the GME using regulations established in agreement with the Authority.
Each year, the Authority determines the size of the contribution to be given to distributors for meeting their obligations. The contribution is financed through a small duty on the distribution rates for electrical energy and gas, established by the Authority in order to ensure that the overall burden on the energy bill of customers is always considerably less than the overall economic benefit from the implementation of the mechanism (between 6 and 12 times). Thus, the contribution helps achieve the actions taken for end-users, by reducing their costs.
In 2009, the Company met the energy -savings objective of 352,108 TOE, by implementing internal projects (about 10% or 33,693 TOE) and by purchases on the Stock Exchange (the remaining 90% or 318,415 TOE).