Milan, October 15th , 2019
As a founding member of the Smart City Observatory at Bocconi University, Enel Foundation contributed to the event “Infrastructures and networks for Smart Cities: what operational efficiency and social value impacts”, discussing how the application of innovative technologies in infrastructures and networks for the management of energy, water and waste in urban areas creates value - economic, social and environmental - for the various players operating in the system .
The event took place on October 15th in Milan and was organized with support from Bocconi’s GREEN (Centre for Research in Geography, Resources, Environment, Energy and Networks), established to conduct and promote multidisciplinary research oriented towards addressing policy-relevant issues at local and global scale.
During the meeting, several presentations outlined how energy, water and waste management in urban areas increasingly rely on the use of smart infrastructures and smart grids. The interventions also underlined that new technologies allow efficient management and monitoring of services, with significant benefits for utilities and a reduction in operational costs. Moreover, smart accounting and pricing systems provide data of significant competitive value to operators, while at the same time allowing users to have information on their consumption, with positive effects on their behavior.
The event featured a keynote speech by Matteo Codazzi, CEO of CESI, a leading consultancy firm in the field and a research partner of Enel Foundation in different projects, as well and a roundtable with the participation of ANDREA CAREGARI Head of Operations and Maintenance at e-distribuzione, the Enel Group company managing electricity distribution grids in Italy.
Professors Giuseppe Franco Ferrari and Edoardo Croci, Coordinators of the Smart City Observatory, concluded the event by remarking, “the Smart City observatory established by Bocconi University offers key institutional and industrial players the opportunity to analyze and debate key topics regarding the economic and regulatory dynamics of smart cities”. In addition, they underlined, “utility led innovation in the management of infrastructures and networks is a prominent area of advancement in urban sustainability. Enel Foundation actively participates in shaping the research agenda of the observatory and in bringing to evidence the best practices of Enel Group”.