Energy, the autumn test for Piedmontese companies

The issue remains one of the most urgent for Italian industry, burdened with an energy cost more than 30% higher than the European average and with no structural solutions on the horizon. The Industrial Union of Turin is dedicating the first event of the season to the topic with a round table scheduled for 17 September. 'We believe it is important,' emphasises Giuseppe Bergesio, president of the Energy Group of the Industrialists' Union of Turin, 'to offer companies up-to-date scenarios and concrete tools to manage energy costs in their budgets. As the Energy Group, we have a programme document and various activities including updating, training and information on energy scenarios'.

Over seventy companies have joined the initiative, in a context in which energy management and brokerage tools are of primary importance to manage the cost variable, Bergesio explains. "Companies must take into account the incidence of energy costs on their budgets and evaluate which protection tools to adopt to manage the volatility of energy and gas, we want to be an operational support for companies' choices," he adds.

The latest forecast survey by Confindustria Piemonte revealed the cautiousness of companies for the third quarter of the year, with negative indicators for production (-1%), orders (-2.3%), exports (-6.1%) and profitability (-6.9%), on which energy costs are insisting, and not a little. Looking at the forecasts for the manufacturing sector, which accounts for about two thirds of the sample, the negative balances are much more pronounced: -5.9% for production, -8% for new orders, -11.5% for profitability and -7.8% for exports. At the same time, the propensity to invest, which affects 74.6% of the companies in the sample, is growing, albeit slightly.

The issue of investment in renewable energy plants remains a driver for companies, according to the president of Confindustria Piemonte, Andrea Amalberto, an entrepreneur in the energy sector, to reduce and manage energy costs. "But it is necessary," Amalberto explains, "to consider some of the factors that slow down the development of new plants, wind, photovoltaic or otherwise, in Italy, starting with the widespread opposition on the part of citizens and local administrators to hosting new realities on their territories, the complexity and slowness of the authorisation processes on the part of local administrations, and, in general, a regulatory connection system that does not actually work and creates long lead times for the commissioning of plants that are often already ready.

Faced with these system inefficiencies, Amalberto argues, national regulatory intervention is needed at the Ministry of the Environment to guarantee faster times, fast lanes for plants, or clear national regulatory coverage that can provide a certain framework for the authorisation work of officials. "The problem of the price of energy is certainly there, but I believe that the central issues are those related to timing and procedures, without forgetting our energy mix and the renunciation of nuclear power, which today penalises us," Amalberto explains.