Enterprise Risk Management

Among the risk factors to which the group is exposed it is important to highlight the potential effects deriving from unforeseeable natural phenomena (for example, earthquakes, floods and landslides) and/or cyclical or permanent climate changes affecting the networks and facilities managed by the Acea group companies. The former risk categories are dealt with by implementing structured asset governance tools, specific to each business area, as well as via projects, even at national level, aimed at enhancing the resilience of infrastructures in the various territories.
The remaining part of risks deriving from natural events is transferred by way of the group insurance plan.
 

The Group is exposed to various risks of a financial nature, with particular reference to the risk of fluctuating prices/volumes as regards the commodities subject to sale and purchase, interest rate risk and credit risk. 

Commodity risk
Acea guarantees the analysis and measurement of exposure to commodity market risks, by interacting with Acea Energia’s Energy Management Unit and verifying compliance with the general Risk Management limits and criteria of the Commercial and Trading Sector, adopted by the same and by the Administration, Finance and Control Division.

Interest rate risk
The Acea group’s approach to managing interest rate risk, considering the asset structure and the stability of the group’s cash flows, has hitherto essentially been targeted at protecting funding costs and stabilising financial flows, with a view to safeguarding the margins and ensuring certainty of the said cash flows deriving from ordinary operations.

Liquidity risk
The Group’s liquidity risk management policy, for both Acea and its subsidiaries, involves the adoption of a financial structure which, in keeping with business objectives and within the limits defined by the Board of Directors, guarantees a suitable level of liquidity that can meet financial requirements, whilst maintaining an appropriate balance between maturity and composition of debt.

Credit risk
The credit risk management procedure within the Acea Group can be summarised in 3 macro stages:

• Prevention (only as regards non-regulated markets): credit check, whereby all new mass market and small business customers are monitored using personalised “scorecards”. The credit check is integrated into the utility management system. The assessment of Large Business customers is managed via an approval workflow involving decision-making bodies consistent with the level of exposure anticipated from the supply. The models and tools for the management of Large Business customers were optimised during 2022;
• Management: application of Collection Strategy based on the customer cluster (e.g. private, P.A.) and exposure limit, with decentralised or centralised operations according to the related case studies;
• Monitoring: report production with a view to identifying significant credit risk phenomena and defining possible corrective actions on a timely basis.

The Acea group operates mostly in regulated markets; a change in the rules for the organisation of these markets, together with their characteristic requirements and obligations, can significantly impact the results and performance of operations.
These risks are mitigated via a careful monitoring of legislative and regulatory developments, discussions with the competent authorities and participation at association and institutional meetings, on the part of the appropriate business structures in synergy with the organisational controls put in place by the group. Moreover, the Acea Group, when supplying the services provided for its customers, pays careful attention to the expectations and decisions of its local and central institutional counterparties. In this respect, the principal factors influencing the Group’s performance include developments in the political/social and reference macroeconomic situation.

Strategic, or guideline, risks refer to a category of risk associated with the ineffective implementation of strategic actions decided by Top Management and/or the Corporate Bodies such as might compromise the achievement of set goals. This risk applies to both short-term (budget) and long-term (business plan) initiatives. Special attention is given to M&A transactions and the risks connected with the group’s potential inability to put in place an appropriate strategy in terms of mergers, acquisitions and disposals and/or failure to effectively handle the governance of the venture.

 

Acea Water services
The companies operating as part of the Integrated Water Service, which manage the entire drinking water and wastewater cycle, from collection of the natural resource up to its return to the environment, implement programmes, procedures and controls with a view to ensuring an adequate supervision in matters of compliance on the basis of characteristics identical to those of the business managed (potential exceedance of water potability limits due to source pollution, potential exceedance of limits for the discharge of treated wastewater into recipient bodies, occupational health and safety, characterisation and conformity of outgoing waste, etc.).

Acea Commercial and trading
The Acea companies, in carrying out their sales activities on the electricity and gas Free Market, are exposed to the risk deriving from competition.
Furthermore, with reference to commodities, there is a risk connected with potential economic and financial damage due to the impact of changes in the macroeconomic context, including sudden changes such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the so-called energy crunch phenomenon.

Acea Electricity distribution
There are risks associated with projects at territorial level such as investments in network assets and the replacement of first generation electronic meters with second generation meters. The risks refer generically to the potential unknowns that may arise during implementation of such articulated and long-term projects; reference is therefore made to the possible critical issues associated with the work done on network infrastructures (authorisations from third-party bodies, procurement of materials, availability of firms, planning of activities, etc.).

Acea Environment
The waste treatment and waste-to-energy facilities are characterised by a high level of technical complexity, requiring them to be managed by qualified resources and organisational structures with a significant level of know how. The waste treatment plants and the related activities are benchmarked on specific waste characteristics. For this reason special procedures have been put in place for the inspection and control of incoming materials via spot checks and analytical sampling pursuant to current legislation.

Generation Segment 
The main operational risks may relate to property damage, personal injury and damage arising from information systems and external events. Acea Produzione, in order to cope with any operational risks, has taken steps, since the start of its activity, to sign policies with leading insurance institutions and, most recently, to activate a Covid-19 insurance policy. The Company pays particular attention to the update training of its employees, in order to make field operators and all corporate management responsible for working in safety, respecting the environment and ecosystems.

Risks associated with potential danger to workers’ health and safety could expose the group to significant costs for the reimbursement of damages, as well as detriment to the group’s reputation vis-à-vis public opinion and investors.

For years now Acea has followed a development path focused on the use of new technologies as a driving force for the operational efficiency, safety and resilience of its industrial assets. The main business processes are now all supported by the use of advanced information systems, implemented and managed by the Group's centralised departments to support the operations of the various companies. In this sense, the Group is therefore exposed to risks concerning the adequacy of the IT infrastructure to the current or future needs of the various businesses, as well as to the risks of unauthorised access. Acea manages these risks with the utmost attention through specific corporate compliance organisational structures, coordinated by specialised Group safeguards.
As far as the cyber security of systems, infrastructure, networks and other electronic devices is concerned, within the framework of services provided by the respective Group Companies, the current procedural and technological safeguards of the Companies in question are ensuring implementation of all actions necessary to come into line with the main sector cyber security standards at national and international level. In particular, a new strategy and new goals, technologies and processes in the areas of IT, OT and IoT have been defined, according to a holistic and unitary approach to security issues, prospectively more challenging.