When something moves from being something spoken about by those who work on it to the general public, it’s a sign that it’s becoming more important. Like smart grids, for example, which manage electricity distribution to make it more efficient, while at the same time optimising consumption and economic and environmental sustainability.
It’s a system that can make cities smart, another word that is becoming ever more commonplace in the lexicon, and a theme that day by day is making its presence felt in public discourse; in the USA it was one of the central themes of both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s electoral campaigns, during which it was discussed in October’s televised debates.
It’s also taking up more and more space in Italy. On Tuesday business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore published an article on it, while on Wednesday Ecomondo, one of the biggest events in Europe dedicated to sustainability, started in Rimini. There people could get their hands on the technology that drives a smart city.
As well as that the Minister of the Environment Corrado Clini has said on more than one occasion that the development of smart grids and smart cities will be an essential part of guaranteeing Italy’s competiveness and growth.
We’re not talking about a matter of opinion here, but an absolute necessity, and Italy is holding all the cards. Enel has been recognised internationally as a leader in this field for over a decade, when it made Italy the first country in the world to equip itself with the electronic meter, the technology on which smart grid development is based which has subsequently been adopted in the world’s most advanced countries.
That’s not all. There’s also the LED street lighting that I wrote about not that long ago as well as various smart city projects that Enel runs all over the world, from Isernia in Italy to Barcelona and Malaga in Spain right out to Bùzios in Brasil. Over the last few days there has also been news of the Memorandum of Understanding with NEC, a world leader in network solutions communications and IT, which will broaden the relationship between the two companies and aims to push smart grid development forward.
Enel is once again showing itself to be a business capable of supporting growth in Italy, giving it international prestige and offering Italians the tools to move themselves into the future. Excatly what it’s been doing for 50 years.
