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Hera’s decision to deploy artificial intelligence into the Networks management has positive impacts on several fronts

Hera has identified new technologies that use Generative AI algorithms as a powerful accelerator of its green transition path, with the specific aim to optimise the Networks management: given the tangible benefits in terms of reduced operating costs, the Group will seize new efficiencies, with visible financial savings, while strengthening the degree of safety, quality and environmental sustainability of its operations.

The positive results achieved in predictive maintenance,
network digitalisation and process automation encourage
Hera to a more extensive and advanced adoption
of new technologies, with over 1.3 billion investments
included in the Business Plan  

A strong investment rationale leads the AI extension to the entire business portfolio   

The 2024-2028 Business Plan includes the allocation of 1.3 billion euro, meaning one-fourth of the total amount of investments in the five-year period, equal to 4.6 billion:

• to the development and application of cutting-edge technologies and
• to the introduction of innovative solutions for gaining a strong competitive advantage in each of the Group’s operating areas.

In the Networks area, these investments are part of a broader plan, of about 2.5 billion euro, dedicated to the upgrade and development of assets, which counts for more than half of the total investment plan amount, with three clear objectives to meet:

1. further enhance the degree of digitisation of the infrastructure and its resilience to extreme weather conditions,
2. consolidate the efficiency in managing the operations,
3. maintain the leadership in the quality level of service delivered.

 

Investments in the Water business put circularity goals into practice

In the Integrated Water Cycle, where around 1.4 billion will be invested, Hera enjoys a strong position, being the second operator on the Italian territory and boasting the highest level of service quality. The planned investments therefore aim to:

• ensure continuity and security of supply even against the challenges due to the Climate Change,
• reduce losses and ensure more efficient distribution using advanced technology solutions,
• adapt the sewage systems to make them more resilient to weather events,
• promote the reuse and regeneration of the water resource, in a logic of actual practice of circularity principles.

The strengthening of the networks for gas and electricity distribution meets the objective of enabling the energy transition

As a result of the new investments of approximately one billion euro included in the 2024-2028 Plan to equip the gas and energy distribution infrastructure with new management technology models in a predictive perspective, Hera will ensure higher reliability and flexibility to the performance of its networks, thus strengthening both quality and continuity of the service.

Here are some concrete examples

New smart meters

By 2028, Hera will install on its gas distribution infrastructure more than 500 thousand smart meters – the NexMeter model, which Hera itself had patented in 2019. The device offers advanced safety features in the event of gas leaks or earthquakes and can also be used in case green gas blends are injected into the network. Over the Plan’s period, besides NexMeter, Hera will install around 500 thousand second-generation (2G) electricity meters, which will enable an even more accurate measurement of consumption, and more than 600 thousand smart meters for the Water Cycle. These meters, in addition to security features, have functionalities that improve the service offered, both through a more accurate profiling of consumption that allows for the development of tailored offers and through more accurate billing, based on actual consumption.

Advanced platform for planning and optimisation of network inspections

Using geospatial algorithms and predictive AI, Hera has developed a system that can calculate a risk probability index for each section of the entire distribution network. This approach makes it possible to identify the areas that are most at risk pre-emptively and implement timely interventions, significantly reducing both gas leaks and the risk of outages. By leveraging on these capabilities and the benefits generated in terms of lower methane emissions, Hera has additional levers to meet its sustainability goals toward Net Zero.

Artificial Intelligence to make interventions at the end user’s place more effective…

To gain speed and efficiency in estimating the costs of the intervention, Hera has also integrated AI in the app available to end users. Thanks to an advanced recognition process, images of customer issues are automatically analysed by the system to generate a preliminary estimate, with the benefit of reducing the number of on-site interventions by the technical staff and improving the customer’s own experience, who can get faster and more accurate responses in the new system.

… and to enhance security of Networks through targeted maintenance

Recently, Hera has also started a series of projects that leverage AI and employ drones to optimise surveillance of its Networks. In inspecting medium-voltage power lines, drones capture images that AI examines to identify any anomalies that require intervention. With the same maintenance optimisation approach, AI enables effective monitoring of water pipelines and structural analysis of works made of concrete. Finally, in sewer network inspections, the capabilities of Machine Learning allow for a prompt identification of any anomalies in flows, thus preventing any damage and contamination in the water.

Advanced and sustainable water management

UV-VIS (ultraviolet and visible light) spectrophotometric analysis is a good example of how Hera detects trace of pollutants in raw water without using chemical reagents, thus improving the drinking water quality and reducing the risk of contamination. Using the predictive models developed, Hera can rely on an accurate forecast of the impact of weather changes on water availability, with evident advantages in terms of management of the scarce resource and of the integrated water cycle infrastructure itself.

Advanced simulations to improve risk management and safety of the Group’s infrastructure system

In monitoring its gas pipelines located in areas of high hydrogeological risk, Hera also employs a system that integrates satellite data and GIS (Geographic Information System). Thanks to sophisticated Machine Learning algorithms, Hera can estimate pipeline rupture risk based on landslide face displacements, counting on detailed risk maps and a system that suggests targeted mitigation actions.

Lastly, through the Siris system, Hera introduced a Digital Twin in the management of gas distribution that now enables real-time simulation of the infrastructure functionality, thus improving the estimates of consumption and network capacity at critical points.

Hera business model, based on a multi-utility philosophy,
allows the Group to multiply the benefits of
the new technological solutions,
also leveraging the synergies between different operational areas.

Integrated CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform, developed with Salesforce, to support the multi-business logic of the service portfolio in a comprehensive and integrated way   

Considering that the multi-utility offer immediately had a very positive market response, Hera took the early decision to create a platform that is now the first one in Italy capable of managing in an integrate way the whole commercial process – from marketing to sales and customer operations. The new platform encompasses all the businesses in which Hera operates as a multi-utility: from Energy to Waste and Water, including Value Added Services.

It is a fully scalable system that enables
Hera to provide services increasingly targeted
to individual customer needs, as it is based on the
concepts of customer centricity and omnichannel.

With this choice, Hera confirms a strong attitude to using frontier technologies, with tangible benefits in terms of value creation, both in terms of improving the service quality, which is at the basis of high customer loyalty, and in terms of increasing the operational efficiency of the Company itself.

The adoption of a Cloud-native architecture primarily offers guarantees in terms of service continuity, resilience and intrinsic security of the solution. In its development, moreover, the project involved a major revision of the original Salesforce technologies, in the logic of adapting them to Hera’s specific needs, with a strong push toward process automation, using a data-driven approach. The result was a completely innovative system that ensures smooth interaction with the customer, regardless of the contact channel.