TOKYO - Leading European gas distributor Italgas S.p.A. aims to improve the disaster preparedness of its energy network in earthquake-prone Italy through cooperation with a Tokyo-based peer that has expertise in the area, CEO Paolo Gallo said during his recent visit to Japan.
The Italy-based company in May renewed a memorandum of agreement with Tokyo Gas Network Co., which was initially signed in 2023, to enhance cooperation, placing focus on the exchange of know-how to enhance capacity to respond to extreme events, technological innovation and digitalization, among other issues.
"Through international collaboration and partnership, we can exchange the best competence, the best practice among ourselves, and be able to provide our infrastructure with the best solution," Gallo told Kyodo News in a recent interview in Tokyo.
Noting that Tokyo Gas Network has developed "a very detailed and efficient system to monitor seismic events," he said such experience is "of extreme value for us" and that his company has also developed a similar system in which sensors are placed to detect signs of potential seismic activity and enable the closure of the network.
The system is being tested in some areas in Italy that could be affected by quakes in the future, Gallo, who has served as the CEO of the company for a decade, said. His company serves customers in Italy and Greece.
Italgas, for its part, can likely support Tokyo Gas Network in decarbonization efforts for the gas business to tackle global warming, he said, touching on Italy's plan to boost the generation of energy from renewable sources such as biomethane.
To increase the use of biomethane, produced from organic waste, Gallo emphasized the importance of investment to become fully digital to grasp the real-time flow of gas and reduce the cost of connection.
With energy prices pushed up by the Middle East conflict that began in late February, Gallo noted the efforts seen in Europe to improve the resilience of infrastructure over the past four years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
"We are experiencing an increase of the price of the gas, sure, but that's not as big as we experienced in 2022," he said, adding he also expects the price will "go back to the pre-crisis situation" after the Iran war.
"Because in the meantime, we have been able to structure a more resilient, more redundant infrastructure that is helping us to be more flexible," he said.
