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{{Infobox company | company_name = Enel S.p.A. | company_logo = | company_type = Società per azioni | traded_as = | foundation = 27 November 1962 | founder = Italian government | location_city = Rome | location_country = Italy | key_people = Fulvio Conti (CEO), Paolo Andrea Colombo (Chairman) | area_served = Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, USA, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil | industry = Energy | products = Natural gas and electricity generation and distribution | revenue = €73.38 billion (2010) | operating_income = €11.26 billion (2010) Formerly a state-owned monopoly, it is now partially privatised with Italian government control: the largest shareholders are the Italian Ministry of Economy & Finance (13.9%) and the state-run bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (17.4%).
Its stock is traded on the Milan Stock Exchange under the symbol 'Enel'. In late 2007, Enel began formal proceedings to delist its American Depositary Receipts from the New York Stock Exchange. The formerly sponsored depositary receipts now trade over the counter in the U.S. with very light trading volume under the symbols ENLAY and ESOCF. Dividend yield is currently around 6.5% (2009).
The conference provoked a great political debate. The electricity system, because of its very nature, was extremely influential at the political level.
The conference almost immediately turned into discussions preparatory to the law, in which the most controversial point was the method of compensation to the former shareholders (these included a large number of small investors).
The opinion of Guido Carli, governor of the Banca d'Italia, prevailed and compensation was immediately paid. Riccardo Lombardi, on the contrary, had proposed deferring payment of compensation over four years, to be guaranteed with bonds. Carli had threatened to resign if his plan was not adopted, which would have thrown the country into chaos since such an act would have been seen, to international commentators too, as a very serious attack on the credibility of the political and economical system.
The impact of the landslide created huge waves in the Vajont reservoir, which partially flooded the villages of Erto e Casso and swept over the dam, totally wiping out the towns in the valley below it: Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè. Approximately two thousand people died in the disaster. Enel and Montedison, were charged at the ensuing trial as the companies responsible for the disaster, a responsibility considered all more serious because of the predictability of the event. The two companies were forced to pay damages to the communities involved in the catastrophe.
Over the next few years, priority was given to “rural electrification”, that is expansion of the electricity network to country districts as a political commitment; geographical irregularities undoubtedly made this operation costly, requiring construction of a high number of infrastructures (from substations to transmission lines supported by pylons), to guarantee the right to electricity of almost all citizen-users.
The next year a law by decree (no. 333) was passed on 11 July 1992, and converted into law 8 August 1992, no. 359, as a result of which Enel became a joint stock company whose main shareholder was the Italian Treasury.
In 1999 the so-called Bersani Decree led to the setting up within the Enel Group of a new company called Terna to which all the company assets related to the high voltage power grid were transferred. Enel remained the sole shareholder of Terna until 2004 while its management, to guarantee neutrality, was entrusted to a newly set up public agency: GRTN (Gestore della Rete di Trasmissione Nazionale – National power grid manager). Subsequently, Terna was listed on the Stock Exchange and 30% of its shares were assigned to the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
In 2001, the telecommunications company Infostrada was bought for 12 billion euros from the German company Mannesmann, and was then merged with Wind, a mobile phone company already controlled by Enel. In May 2005, Enel sold 70% of Wind to Naguib Sawiris, President of the Orascom Telecom Holding, through a corporate vehicle (Weather Investments). In December 2006 Enel completed its exit from the telecommunications industry with the sale of a further 26.1% to Weather Investment.
The issue of Enel’s monopoly in the specific market of electricity had been raised when legal aspects related to the principles of free competition were discussed. The case had some similarities with the one previously handled for Telecom Italia, a state-owned telephone monopoly. In order to encourage liberalisation, Enel was forced to transfer management of the power grid (Terna) subsequently giving up its ownership too, and to sell 15,000 MW of power plants (a capacity similar to that of the whole of Belgium) to its competitors, as well as selling the distribution network in major cities (Rome, Milan, Turin, Verona, Brescia, Trento, Modena, etc.) to the former municipal companies.
The Italian electricity market, one of the most liberalised in Europe, currently comprises around 100 utility companies including major European groups such as France’s Électricité de France and GDF Suez, Germany’s E.ON and RWE, Switzerland’s Atel and Retia, and Austria’s Verbund. The Electric Energy and Gas Authority has often cited the case of liberalisation of the electricity market as a success.
In its strictest sense, denationalisation means transfer to private parties of more than 50% of shares in the corporate capital or in any case of a sufficient portion of the shares to ensure the relative majority of the voting rights and control of the company is privately owned. The Treasury is still Enel’s controlling shareholder, but over time has sold approximately 70% of the company’s shares, now owned by around 1.3 million small Italian investors, investment funds, banks and insurance companies all over the world.
Solar energy provides only a marginal share of the national electricity requirements: less than 0.001%, while in Germany it accounts for as much as 0.3% of the energy produced. Enel operates in this sector, which in any case represents an extremely interesting option for future electricity generation: Enel Green Power runs the 3.3 MW power plant at Serre Persano, one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the world and is completing around 50 MW of photovoltaic installations elsewhere in Italy, with major plans for growth over the coming years.
At Priolo Gargallo, Enel has started up the Archimede Project, a 5 MW solar thermal plant jointly designed with ENEA (Ente Nazionale per le Nuove technologie e l’Ambiente - National Council for New Technology, Energy and the Environment). This plant, inaugurated on 14 July 2010, is based on an innovative idea for making use of solar energy which consists of a process of industrial integration between a solar thermodynamic plant and a conventional gas combined cycle power plant. Over the past three years, with Enel.si, the leading company in the photovoltaic market at national level, Enel has supervised the installation of over 50 MW of photovoltaic plants for industrial, service and domestic customers.
These plants will permit production over the coming years of about 61,500 MWh per year of electricity from solar sources at national level, equivalent to the consumption of around 20,000 Italian families, with a total annual saving of around 36,000 tons of .
Wind power has increased exceptionally over the past few years. It is estimated that it will continue to grow in the near future at a rate of approximately 30% per year. In Italy over the past decade it has been the source that has had the greatest increase. Enel Green Power currently runs 17 wind parks, with an overall capacity of 331 MW. Enel.si has also recently launched a new offer of miniature wind turbines for families: small wind power generators that can power individual houses, cottages, farm holiday establishments, but also small weather stations, or even boats, provided that there is sufficient wind in the area.
In the field of renewable sources, Italy can claim world leadership in geothermal energy know-how (with 31 geothermal power plants in Tuscany and a production of over 5 billion kWh per year) which it is exporting to the United States and Latin America. Further increases in geothermal power production in Italy is an important target in the strategy of Enel Green Power.
Additionally hydroelectric power makes a significant contribution to satisfying Italy’s demand for electricity covering around 15% of its requirements. Enel has therefore built up an impressive level of know-how that makes it a world leader with regard to development of this renewable source. Today, since potential hydroelectric sources are now almost fully exploited, the company is looking with particular interest at the development of small-scale hydro power which could provide a significant contribution to coverage of the demand for electricity. Small-scale hydro power plants can be constructed and run using methods that have little impact on the territory and can be managed by small communities, as well as being integrated into a multiple and balanced use of water resources. Enel Green Power currently manages over 270 local hydroelectric plants in Italy, with a total capacity of 1,507 MW.
Enel is also taking part in a European platform for research into smart grids, the distribution grids of the future, which permit consumers to interact in real time with the grid: finding out the current price of energy, deciding whether to consume electricity at that moment or to put off consumption to times when there is a lower load, analysing whether it is convenient to generate power for their own consumption. The result will be an electricity supply grid similar to an internet network in which the various users, consulting each other and exchanging the necessary information, can define energy flows locally, while respecting technical and safety restrictions.
Enel is also the second utility company in the natural gas market in Italy, with approximately 2.6 million customers and a 10% market share in terms of volume.
Approximately 80,000 people work for Enel running a highly diversified power station park including hydroelectric, thermoelectric, nuclear, geothermal, wind and photovoltaic generation. In 2009, Enel posted revenues of more than 64 billion euros (+4.7% compared with 2008), EBITDA of more than 16 billion euros (+12.1% compared with 2008) and net income of 5.4 billion euros (+1.9% compared with 2008). As of June 30th 2010, the Group has over 80,000 employees and operates a wide range of hydroelectric, thermoelectric, nuclear, geothermal, wind-power, photovoltaic and other renewables’ plants. About 44% of the power generated by Enel is carbon free. Enel is strongly committed to the development of renewable energy sources and to the development of new environmental friendly technologies.
On December 1, 2008 Enel established Enel Green Power, the Group’s Company dedicated to the development and management of power generation from renewable energy, operating around 5,800 MW of installed capacity relying on hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, biomass and co-generation sources in Europe and the Americas.
Enel was the first utility in the world to replace its 32 million Italian customers’ traditional electromechanical meters with modern electronic devices that make it possible to take meter readings in real time and manage contractual relationships remotely. This innovation, which is key to the development of smart grids, has attracted interest from many utilities around the world. In Spain, Endesa is about to install 13 million electronic meters to its customers.
After completing the sale of non-core assets, Enel has focussed on consolidating the businesses taken over abroad in the electricity and gas sectors and further integrating its business.
On 17 September 2008, Enel set up Enel Green Power, the Group company devoted to development and management of electricity generation from renewable sources everywhere in the world, a company that operates hydroelectric, wind power, geothermal, photovoltaic and biomass plants producing a total of 4,500 MW in Europe and in the Americas.
Enel has power plants in Europe (Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Spain), in North America (Canada and the United States) and in Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama). With Endesa, Enel’s presence is extended to Argentina, Colombia, Morocco, Peru and Portugal.
On 30 July 2008, Enel inaugurated a new clean coal power plant at Civitavecchia, a project which began at the end of 2003. It involved conversion of an old power plant run on fuel oil. The new plant has a total capacity of 1,980 MW, comprises three units and is able to satisfy 50% of electricity demands for the Lazio Region. By using improved technology, the plant reduces total emissions by 88% and emissions by 18%. Enel has plans for a similar conversion of the plant at Porto Tolle (Rovigo), where the authorisation procedure is still under way.
With regard to gas, some years ago Enel concluded construction of 5 combined cycle power plants to replace traditional gas-fuelled plants, increasing efficiency and reducing emissions. With its subsidiary Nuove Energie, Enel is also working on a project to build a regassifier with a capacity of 8 billion cubic metres at Porto Empedocle (Agrigento, Sicily), for which the authorisation procedure is nearing conclusion. The plant will make it possible to import gas into Italy in liquid form, using special methane tanker ships, and then feed it into the distribution mains. Attention to ethical aspects has also increased over recent years, recognised at world level with the inclusion of Enel in the most prestigious stock exchange indexes which take into account the commitment of companies to Corporate Social Responsibility.
After fulfilling the obligations under Italian law by completing the sale of Terna (the company that manages the national power grid), Enel has devoted itself to internationalisation of its business by finalising a number of very significant take-overs including Slovenské elektrárne (SE) the most important electricity company in Slovakia and the second most important in Central-Eastern Europe, a number of distribution companies in Romania, the Russian Ogk 5 generating company and the Spanish electricity company Endesa.
At the end of 2006, the Group presented a pro-environment plan, involving investments in renewable sources and for research and application of the best technologies for reduction of emissions. In this field, Enel is working on a number of avant-garde projects for capture and storage. Considered by the European Commission to be some of the most interesting in this field, these projects aim to generate electricity from fossil fuel with “zero emissions”: using capture and storage technologies, flue gases will in fact be captured in the chimney stacks and safely stored in deep aquifers or exhausted methane or oil fields.
At the end of 2008/beginning of 2009, Enel began selling off a number of assets to reduce its financial debts, which had increased over the previous months, due to the takeover of 92% of the capital of Endesa. The assets sold included Enel Linee Alta Tensione (high voltage power transmission grid), sold by Enel Distribuzione to Terna in December 2008, and 80% of Enel Rete Gas (31,000 km of gas distribution pipelines, 99.98% controlled by Enel Distribuzione which will in any case maintain a minority shareholding of around 20%), on 29 May 2009 to a consortium headed by F2I and AXA, for the sum of 480 million euros. The contract will now have to be approved by the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (the Italian Competition Authority) and AEEG (the Italian Authority for Electricity and Gas).
Again to improve the financial stability of the Group, on 1 June 2009 Enel launched a capital increase of a total of around 8 billion euros.
Category:Power companies of Italy Category:Government-owned companies in Italy Category:Companies established in 1962 Category:Companies based in Rome Category:Companies delisted from the New York Stock Exchange Category:Nuclear sector
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