We wish to offer our customers services. This means we have to keep our infrastructures under strict control in order to review, extend and maintain efficient networks and systems. We need to optimise our company processes to ensure we provide our customers and all the residents we serve with constant, prompt assistance.
Our efforts to become digitalised have significantly improved our customer care, which focuses increasingly on providing smooth, top quality operations and on solving problems promptly and consistently. Our progress can be seen in the trend of the toll-free calls and in the results of the customer satisfaction surveys;
Acea8cento
Acea8cento assists the main companies operating in the Group in remotely managing some of the channels for commercial use e.g. telephones, fax, web form, e-mail, social networks.
More specifically, in 2018, Acea8cento helped to:
In 2018, the total number of calls to the Acea toll-free numbers decreased by over 24 percentage points compared to the previous year and recorded a global service - given by the ratio between responses and total number of calls received - of 93% (+3% compared to 2017).
A general drop in the number of calls was recorded in all sectors, except for electrical faults (Areti) which basically remained stable for the private network.
There has been a fall in the number of calls to toll-free numbers for energy (commercial), water and public lighting services, mainly thanks to the technological innovations made to our processes and infrastructures and to service digitalisation.
For many years we have carried out regular surveys in collaboration with specialised institutes to measure customer and residents’ satisfaction for the services provided for electricity, water and public lighting.
As in previous years, 2018 saw two six-monthly surveys which gave the results on the right.
Global opinions on services provided
Water
We are responsible for the SII [Integrated Water Service] for various Local Authority Water Boards (ATO) in the regions of Lazio (ATO2 and ATO5), Tuscany, Campania (ATO – Calore Irpino) and Umbria, according to an Agreement entered into with the Area Supervisory Body (EGA) The SII manages the entire cycle for drinking and waste water, from collecting the natural resource at the springs to returning it to the environment. The Companies in the Group operate in compliance with the procedures in our QMS management systems to continually improve and provide widespread, top quality services and transparency in our interaction with our stakeholders, and to minimise our environmental and social impacts
One of our main activities is to technologically modernise the infrastructures of our networks, and specifically to:
Acea Ato 2’s smart metering project
"Smart metering" systems are systems based on the remote reading and management of utility meters with consequent advantages in terms of efficiency and data security. After two years’ work, Acea Ato 2 developed and patented an innovative system of remote readings with the new meters. As the initial experiments launched in 2016 were so successful, at the end of 2018 we began to install new meters equipped with an impulse emitting device and a radio module which enables the consumption recorded by the meters to be read remotely and acquired by a special Data Management Centre.
This technology will enable us to already obtain benefits in 2019, including:
With the support of Acea Elabori, we take great care to check the water quality not only of springs and wells, but also of the storage tanks and distribution network. Control frequency is established according to the volumes, the population served, the condition of the network and infrastructures and specific characteristics of the local sources.
The integrated water service includes the collection and purification of the waste water in order to return it to the natural environment. We analyse water quality both on entry into and exit from the treatment plants in order to constantly monitor the impact of the business on the receiving water bodies. Thanks to the use of avant-garde technology, the Acea Ato 2 Environmental Operation Room continually monitors hydrometric and pluviometric information in the Rome area and provides data on water quality of the urban stretches of the Tiber and Aniene rivers.
It is essential to monitor the condition of the networks and to promptly intervene in the event of a fault: we do not merely identify and repair any damage appearing in the network, we also extend our analyses and interventions to a wider stretch of the network in order to be able to plan and, if necessary, carry out any restoration work.
Public lighting
Artistic LED technology lighting of Rome’s historic fountains, of the Archeological Park of the Colosseum, of Santa Severa Castle and the Roman Theatre in Benevento
According to the Service Agreement drawn up with the Municipality of Rome, we use the company Areti to manage: a network serving over 199,700 lighting points which we design, construct, run, maintain and restructure, always in compliance with certified QMS Management Systems and working closely with Public Administration and Supervisory Body.
The main indicator of the quality of the public lighting service is the time taken to repair faults. Times are calculated from the time of the report which can come from the control systems along the network and directly from citizens or from the Municipality of Rome via special channels, such as call centres, website, fax or letter. In 2018, 81% of the faults reported were resolved within the year.
The LED plan for Rome
The LED Plan, begun in 2016, aims to reduce energy consumption of public lighting and maintain and improve lighting by replacing the light fixtures with LED lights.
By the end of 2018, we had installed a total of over 170,000 light fixtures and, despite the increase in lighting points, between 2016 and 2018, total energy consumption for public lighting was halved and a rise was recorded in the average output of the lamps installed.
Energy
We also use Areti to manage, modernise and expand the electricity distribution infrastructures in Rome and Formello, a network of over 1.6 million withdrawal points.
In addition to the objectives of efficiency, improved service quality and reduction of the environmental impact, the interventions on the infrastructures are concerned with the application of innovative technologies, especially as regards the smart city integrated distribution, electric mobility, storage systems, connectivity and resilience. This also includes our commitment to extend the optic fibre communication network to "ultra-broadband" in Rome.
As regards digital meters and smart metering systems, in 2018 Areti continued its technical investigations into the development and consolidation of new standards and conducted on-site experiments.
We also continued to experiment multifunctional technologies and architectures for smart metering, applicable to several sectors, e.g.: smart water metering with GPRS technology and NB-IoT for Acea Ato 2. We installed remotely monitored digital meters for active low voltage utilities: 1,613,050 meters on low voltage utilities, equal to 99.68% of the total LV meters.
