Italgas inaugurates new network command and control centre

Italgas has inaugurated its new ‘Command and control centre for plants and networks’ at subsidiary Toscana Energia’s headquarters in Florence.

The new centre, operating together with its ‘twin’ at Italgas Reti in Turin, allows the Italgas group’s 74,000km of gas distribution network to be monitored and managed remotely, including the 8,000km of Toscana Energia’s networks.

Overall, the new centre should make it possible to further raise the levels of security, flexibility of service and the timeliness of interventions, both direct and remote, 24/7 throughout the year.

“The technological upgrade has triggered a Copernican revolution that has completely transformed our networks to the point of making them one of the engines of the ecological transition to net zero and the sustainable development of our cities,” said Paolo Gallo, CEO of Italgas, at the inauguration.

“With the new Florence centre we also cross another important milestone: we are getting closer and closer, in reality, to the goal of a fully digitised network, capable of acting like the nervous system of the human body, with the ability to react at central and local levels.”

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The Piazza Mattei command and control centre is located within an environment specially designed for the management of a latest generation digital network, according to an Italgas statement.

The structure consists of two contiguous areas, which operate in close connection. One is where the emergency service reports are received, analysed and field technicians organised with service orders and the other where the remote command and control takes place through the use of the group’s digital factory developed proprietary digital advanced network automation (DANA) software based on data from sensors and actuators installed along the gas distribution network.

The rooms are organised in such a way as to encourage both sharing and collaboration on common themes as well as a focus on specific topics.

Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscany region, put it this way: “Thanks to the new command and control centre for plants and networks, Florence and Tuscany will become the heart, or more precisely the brain, of a digitised gas distribution network of national scope.

“The joint action with the similar Turin centre will lead to an important innovation in the governance of this sector to better monitoring of efficiency to an increase in safety.”