The municipality of Brescia must not sell (and will not sell) even a single feather from its goose that lays the golden eggs, namely A2A. And never before on 3 June have the majority and opposition councilors found themselves aligned on this position, revealed in various ways after the presentation of the industrial plan made by Renato Mazzoncini in the city council chamber to the Environment and Budget commissions.
A stance that completely freezes the hypothesis put forward in recent weeks by the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala (a municipality which together with Brescia holds 50% of shares plus one) of diluting the shareholding, perhaps by bringing in new entities. The CEO himself confirmed that there will be no upheavals in the corporate structure in the next 10 years: «We are able to make all the investments envisaged in the industrial plan without capital increases but reinvesting half of the profit every year.” A plan that receives the applause of the mayor Laura Castelletti: «Stronger A2A means more resources, more quality services, more dividends for the Municipality and consequently for the people of Brescia. In the next few years the Group will invest 3 billion in our territory, 1.8 billion in the city alone. These are fundamental actions for the ecological transition, the real challenge of the coming years.”
The desire to maintain the current share portfolio has been clarified — as underlined by Fabio Capra, Roberto Cammarata and Roberto Omodei of the majority and by Fabio Rolfi himself for the minority — there was no shortage of questions on the future management of the incinerator, on investments in the water cycle and renewable sources. It is the opposition leader, Rolfi, who asks if A2A intends to reduce the quantity of waste incinerated, a theme present in Castelletti’s electoral program (textual, on page 7: «In agreement with A2A, evaluate the feasibility of a progressive reduction of quantity of waste disposed of by the waste-to-energy plant”). Mazzoncini’s response is secular: «If we reduce waste we must increase the use of gas to operate district heating» he says, recalling the 120 million just spent to recover heat from the fumes coming out of the waste-to-energy plant.
The Brescia system has been based on district heating for 40 years (which avoids the operation of 180 thousand individual domestic boilers) and cannot be replaced by heat pumps in individual buildings: “huge investments would be needed”. Of course, other alternative sources could be found: in Milan A2A recovers 100 MW of heat from the heat developed by the enormous data centers which do not exist in Brescia. And there is not even the possibility of burning the biomethane that would have been produced in the Bedizzole plant, which will not be built “since with the change in legislation and the incentives they are not enough to have a sufficient profitability of the investment” adds Mazzoncini . Hence his invitation to the city council: «I would suggest sitting around a table and analyzing the thermal data to understand what the real benefit of reducing combusted waste is». Still on the subject of waste, Mazzoncini explains A2A’s desire to increase the recovery and treatment of industrial waste (1.8 million tonnes more per year by 2035): «Today there is a hyper fragmentation of operators and companies are going crazy to look for someone who is responsible for collecting copper, oil, other waste.”
Responding to a request from Massimo Tacconi (Lega), he confirms that the project financing proposal for the co-management of the water cycle in the Province remains valid: «The last twelve A2A management contracts expiring did not pass to Acque Bresciane because the latter did not have the money to pay them. And when the management of Brescia Città Acque Bresciane expires it will have to give us 700 million euros: it doesn’t seem like a viable option to me, taking into account the fact that it needs 250 million for the Garda purifier. How do you manage to face an investment of this kind and have the cash reserve to liquidate the management takeover? It seems to me to be absolutely common sense to find a new solution respecting Acque Bresciane, which among the various Italian in-house companies has been able to work well.” In the meantime, A2A continues with its 43 million plan to build purifiers in Calvisano, Bagolino, Vobarno, Visano, Mazzano-Ciliverghe and Pralboino.
Among the other questions posed by the directors, there is no shortage of answers to Capra on the definitive loss of the investment in Montenegro made in 2009 («180 million»), and to Francesco Patitucci on the confirmation of the plan for the new headquarters in via Sostegno («we are determined to carry it forward») eqthat to Valentina Gastaldi (Brescia Attiva) who asks how many renewables the company is installing: «200-300 MW every year» closes Mazzoncini.
