Enterprises, Utilities: production value +79% in ten years

Rome, July 3 (Adnkronos) – A production value that has risen from 38 billion in 2015 to 68 billion in 2025 and a growth in employment, which in ten years has gone from 90 thousand to 104 thousand. These are some of the data on the evolution of the utilities sector that emerged today at the General Assembly of Utilitalia, organized in Rome on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Federation created in 2015 after the merger between Federutility and Federambiente.

From 2015 to 2025, the production value of Italian utilities increased by 79%, reaching 68 billion. Employment, even in the face of industrial consolidation that has seen mergers and aggregations, increased by 15%, from 90 thousand in 2015 to the current 104 thousand. As evidence of the value generated by utilities in the territories in which they operate, on average each euro of turnover of these companies generates a production level of 2.6 euros and, at the same time, for every million euros of turnover, between 16 and 34 employees are employed.

"In recent years - explains the president of Utilitalia, Filippo Brandolini - between the pandemic, the energy crisis and drought, utilities have found themselves facing a series of emergency situations that have represented enormous challenges for the sector. Nonetheless, companies have not limited themselves to guaranteeing the continuity of services but have made fundamental investments to support the ecological transition of the country, confirming their centrality within this path".

WATER – As regards the water sector, per capita investments have gone from 38 euros per year in 2015 to an estimated 80 euros in 2025, with a growth of 110%. "Among the issues to be resolved – Utilitalia reports – are investments relating to 'in economy' management, where local authorities deal directly with the water service: here investments collapse to 29 euros per inhabitant. For the near future, in the face of an overall value of investments supported by the tariff increased to around 4 billion per year, the sector's needs are estimated by Utilitalia to be at least 6 billion per year. In recent years, the PNRR has allocated around 1.1 billion per year to the sector: additional resources of around 0.9 billion euros per year will therefore be needed until 2026, and at least 2 billion euros per year after the closure of the PNRR, to raise the overall investment index". In the Federation's view, "the resources deriving from the tariff should also be accompanied by a public contribution of at least 1 billion euros per year for the next 10 years".

SEPARATE COLLECTION – Investments that are also necessary in the urban waste sector, where in recent years important steps forward have been made in terms of separate collection (from 47.5% in 2015 to the current 67%) and recycling (from 41.1% in 2015 to the current 50.8%). The European Union has set challenging objectives for 2035 that concern the effective recycling of 65% of urban waste produced and landfill disposal of up to a maximum of 10%, while Italy currently stands at 16%, even if many steps forward have been made compared to the 2015 figure (26%). To meet them in the future – warns Utilitalia – additional investments of approximately 4.5 billion are needed: of these, 3 billion concern the plant equipment (2.5 for incineration plants and 0.5 for anaerobic digestion), while 1.5 billion will be necessary to implement separate waste collection systems.

ENERGY – "The energy sector, on the other hand, is expected to undergo a radical transformation to meet the objectives of decarbonization and combating climate change. With the Green Deal and the European Climate Law, the EU has identified an extremely ambitious point of arrival: climate neutrality by 2050", observes the Federation. The analysis of the industrial plans of the major utilities involved in the energy sector has highlighted a volume of planned investments equal to approximately 19 billion euros over the next 5 years: of these, 7.6 are earmarked for investments in electricity, gas and district heating networks, 7.7 for the production of renewable and non-renewable energy, while approximately 1.5 billion are earmarked for energy efficiency and sustainable mobility.

THE MAIN CHALLENGES FOR UTILITIES TOWARDS 2035 – Looking to the future, the utilities sector faces crucial challenges that require strategic commitment on multiple fronts. As highlighted by the deputy vice president of Utilitalia, Luca Dal Fabbro, “public service companies are candidates to be essential players in the new balance between energy and environmental security, innovation and economic growth and territorial cohesion. In this context, the industrialization of the sector and the overcoming of in-house management, where still present, remain fundamental to improving performance and increasing overall investment capacity. The future strategy is based on three key axes: evolutionary regulation, efficient industrial governance and, no less importantly, a competent and change-oriented workforce”.

Among the key priorities identified by Utilitalia are the strengthening of the role of independent regulation, the increase of investments in the safety and resilience of infrastructures and supplies, the aggregations for an efficient governance and the overcoming of the regulatory constraints of the Consolidated Law on Participated Companies. And also the consolidation of the industrialization of the sectors, even more substantial investments to guarantee the quality of the water resource, measures aimed at guaranteeing the continuity of investments beyond the horizon of the PNRR, the integration of artificial intelligence in operational and management processes and labor policies that favor stability, training and organizational innovation.