Enhancing energy efficiency: RESULTS ACHIEVED
The Group's energy performance can be represented by certain indicators that express its progress and prospective targets and outline the company's savings strategies. Comparing energy consumption with specific production and operating indicators can provide consumption intensity indices that reflect the results achieved by corporate energy management and by the efficiency-enhancing measures implemented.
In 2019 the water sector improved overall, also as a result of investments, with consumption intensity indices falling for both water treatment and drinking water purification. However, we must point out that the purification index is directly influenced by the volumes treated, while energy consumption remains substantially stable due to the characteristics of the plants.
The indicator for district heating worsened, compared to the previous year (+4.6%), mainly due to a greater operation of the Imola cogeneration plant in the summer period in 2019 compared to 2018.
The public lighting index continued to improve (-9.7% compared to 2018), thanks to the energy efficiency improvement measures described below, while the waste-to-energy plants and site management indicators were substantially unchanged.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY INDICES TO REPRESENT OUR PROGRESS
| 2018 | 2019 | D19/18 % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water purification | primary energy (MWh)/volumes treated (thousands of m3) | 414.8 | 412.6 | -0.5% |
| Drinking water purification | primary energy (MWh)/water fed into the water network (thousands of m3) | 455.0 | 440.7 | -3.2% |
| District heating | consumption of primary energy for district heating (toe)/heat fed into the network (MWh) | 173.6 | 181.6 | +4.6% |
| Waste-to-energy plants | net energy production (MWheq)/volumes treated (t) | 544.6 | 545.3 | +0.1% |
| Management of office sites | total primary energy consumed (toe)/site area (thousands of m2) | 26.5 | 26.2 | -1.1% |
| Public lighting | primary energy (kWh)/light points | 336.4 | 303.8 | -9.7% |
The data concern the energy consumption of Hera Spa, AcegasApsAmga, Fea, Gruppo Aresgas, Hera Luce, Herambiente, Hestambiente, and Marche Multiservizi. The data refer to the consumption of electricity, natural gas, diesel fuel, LPG, petrol, and waste.
Focus on public lighting
Two Hera Group companies,Hera Luce and Marche Multiservizi, operate around 550 thousand light points (+3% compared to 2018), ensuring the proper operation of the public lighting service in 181 municipalities in ten regions: Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Lombardy, Marche, Lazio, Tuscany, Piedmont, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Abruzzo. In some areas they also manage a total of about 10,500 traffic lights.
In 27.5% of the light points the companies operate, LED lamps are now used, up compared to 2018. Consumption optimization systems (brightness reduction, partial shut-down, etc.) manage 53.3% of the light points the companies operate. We use energy-saving light bulbs (i.e., not mercury-vapour lamps which, according to the energy qualification system developed by Hera Luce on the basis of the Minimum Environmental Criteria, belong to class G) in 32.9% of the light points we operate.
Considering the 149 municipalities for which Hera Luce operated the public lighting service from January to December 2019, only electricity from renewable sources is used in 84 municipalities; electricity consumption in these municipalities is 39.8% of total consumption. In 55 municipalities, the electricity consumption per population equivalent (calculated considering both residents and tourists) is less than 50 KWh/pe, which is the threshold of the highest classes of the eight defined by the minimum environmental criteria for public lighting services. These municipalities consume 26.0% of the total electricity. Lastly, there are 17 municipalities where all the lighting points we operate use LED lamps (5.3% of total consumption). In total, 108 of the municipalities feature one or more of these three good environmental practices (use of renewable sources, low power consumption, LED lamps) with a consumption of 57.8% of the total.
During 2019, Hera Luce's commercial effort aimed at consolidating the service area and expanding the area of influence, offering potential customers smart solutions for their respective cities. Particularly noteworthy among these proposals is the commitment to energy efficiency achieved by installing low consumption systems and, above all, latest technology LED lamps.
| 2018 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|
| no. of municipalities served | 176 | 181 |
| Light points | 534,486 | 549,009 |
| of which energy-saving type (%) | 35% | 33% |
| of which LED (%) | 15% | 27% |
| of which with management systems for optimising consumption (reduction of intensity, partial switching off, etc.) (%) | 51% | 53% |
| Traffic lights | 10,523 | 10,496 |
| of which LED (%) | 62% | 62% |
During 2019, Hera Luce engaged in completing several public-private partnership projects under the project finance provisions of art. 183(15) of Italian Legislative Decree 50/2016. The projects submitted involve reducing the energy consumption and improving the safety of public lighting systems, to comply with the minimum environmental criteria for public lighting equipment which came into force in 2017 and with those for public lighting services which came into force in 2018. References to the circular economy and preparation of the material balance are increasingly frequent criteria used in awarding tenders. In this context, Hera Luce performed the first Italian national and European case study of circular economy applied to public lighting.