Renewable energy

Francesco Vincenzi, president of ANBI, was elected to the top of the Consorzio Energia Acque (C.E.A.), an electric purchasing group, consisting of 36 consortia of reclamation and 5 companies in the food and agriculture sector, created following the liberalization of the energy market, C.E.A. Today, it represents an annual purchase mass of approximately 270 million kilowatt hours, distributed through 3,140 sampling points in 10 Italian regions.

In 2017, following a stronger energy need for the greater use of hydraulic pumps, due to drought, this need exceeded 312 million kilowatt hours for a total expenditure of about 53 million euros; supplier of the Consorzio Energia Acque for the period 2018-2020 is, following a tender, the company Nova AEG SpA of Vercelli.

"My election - comments the ANBI president - has a double meaning. The first is the desire to broaden the membership, broadening the experience of the E.C.A.C. on the national territory to pass on the economic benefits to the budgets of the Consorzi di bonifica, thus reducing the costs borne by the members: increasing the purchase mass, in fact, means getting better prices in the purchase of electricity, improving the financial balance of the consortium and thus being able to contain above all the costs for the management of irrigation to the benefit of the Italian agricultural economy; secondly - concludes Vincenzi - wants to confirm the role of the Consortia of reclamation in the field of green economy starting from the commitment to the use of renewable energy, of which there are also significant producers, especially in the hydroelectric field.”

Currently, the reclamation consortia produce more than 495 million kilowatt hours per year in 234 hydroelectric plants, to which must be added about 2 million kilowatt hours of photovoltaic energy, the result of the work of 46 plants.