Other activities

Besides operating in the production of electricity and heat, the Enel Group also operates worldwide in electricity distribution, the storage and movement of fuel, geothermal drilling and work in mines and on worksites, while constantly monitoring any environmental impacts from such activities (see the chapter “Quality for customers”).

In order to safeguard the countryside and local area, Enel, in constructing new grids and restructuring old grids, basically adopts two strategies to reduce the impacts:

1. underground low-, medium- and high-voltage cabling in urban centers;
2. adoption of elicord cabling for low- and medium-voltage lines, consisting of three insulated and intertwined cables which help reduce the visual impact.

The cabling ratio was 69.4% in 2015, up by 7% compared to 2014. This ratio, which concerns low- and medium-voltage lines, represents the percentage of cabled lines to total lines and provides an indication of the visual impact of power transmission lines. The increase in this figure entails a reduction in maintenance costs and an increase in the protection of birds.

In relation to the storage and movement of liquid fuel (storage tanks for oil and diesel and the related oil pipelines) and solid fuel (storage facilities for coal and lignite situated at dedicated ports), particular monitoring is made of the use of resources, the consumption of primary energy, the consumption of electricity and the production of emissions, effluents and waste.

Geothermal drilling, which makes the endogenous fluid available for geothermal/electric production, entails the use of technologies and know-how in which Enel is a world leader. In 2015 a total of 25,288 meters were drilled covering new wells and restoration work in Italy and the United States.

In relation to mining and extraction, besides the extractable quantity of fuel, the activities for geomorphologic, hydrogeological and natural recovery are also monitored.

The Enel Group also operates in the work to design, build and revamp plant. The strategies aim to use the best available technologies internationally, in order to guarantee technological development and increase the efficiency of plant, also through suitable and innovative research projects. As from 2013, in conformity with the new standards, which are applicable as from 2015 and have been defined by the Global Reporting Initiative GRI-G4, the Enel Group started to report the main environmental performance indicators connected to the activities on worksites(13) as regards environmental aspects which are directly managed by the Group, which will be followed also by its extension to those indirect aspects managed directly by contractors.