Enel intends to invest 565 mil euro in Romania's infrastructure and networks

AGERPRES special correspondent Florin Barbuta reports: Enel will invest 565 million euro in infrastructure and networks on the Romanian market, 2018 through 2020, company representatives communicated on Tuesday in a press conference. 

Of this amount, 329 million euro are meant for development investments. Moreover, Enel will invest a further 400 million euro for the digitalisation of networks and processes. 

The company has also made it its mission to lower the average span of unplanned interruptions per customer by 11 pct, as compared to the 2017 level. The company's officials have further communicated they want to reach 2.1 million intelligent meters, the target for 2017 being 300,000. 

The group's representatives announced on Monday the launch of Enel X, the e-Solutions division's brand, which aims to bring along technologies and solutions for the digitalisation of cities, dwellings, mobility and the industry. 

"Ever since 2015 we have made remarkable progress in all of our strategy's sectors. Enel is nowadays a far more efficient business, with a well-defined path towards an industrial growth which, combined with discipline in capital management and the swift execution of the assets' rotations, have contributed to the increase of both profitability and the Group's cash flows. Thus, we have increased dividends in 2017 by 44 percent as compared to the ones paid in 2015. All these results have been achieved despite far more challenging macro-economic developments than expected," Francesco Starace, CEO and General Manager of Enel stated. 

According to the quoted source, with 2020 in mind, digitalisation has become a concrete, palpable dimension of the business, with an investment of over 5 billion euro during the interval comprised in the strategic plan. 

In Romania, Enel holds 64.4 pct of Enel Distribution Muntenia and Enel Energy Muntenia, 51 pct of Enel Distribution Banat, Enel Distribution Dobrogea and Enel Energy and 100 pct of Enel Romania shares. These companies manage a network of 91,000 kilometres which distributes 14 TWh per year (a 34 pct market share), sells approximately 9 TWh/year to approximately 2.6 million clients, of whom 2.8 million are residential clients (close to 20 pct of the retail market) and 200,000 companies.