The electricity providers of Rome and Vienna have agreed to collaborate on smart grid developments. Both companies, Areti and Wiener Netze, provide electricity to historic European cities that are rich in artistic and archaeological monuments. The companies will develop smart grid innovations that work with the particular demands of two ancient cities that are also major tourist centres.

Areti and Wiener Netze already collaborate within various European initiatives. They will now cooperate on projects such as next generation Smart Meters, flexibility market management and Smart Grids.

Areti’s Managing Director Giulio Carone said: “This agreement will allow the development of synergies between respective competencies with a view to modernising and digitising the grids in order to achieve constantly more advanced management processes for the electricity infrastructures serving the two cities. Experiences and technical and operational solutions will be pooled for the benefit of an even more efficient service for the residents of the two capitals”.

The signing ceremony included a visit to a primary substation at Castro Pretorio, a Roman neighbourhood that includes the Baths of Diocletian and churches by Michelangelo. The challenges of plant and electricity grid management in a city such as Rome with well-known archaeological, artistic and town-planning restrictions were discussed, and similarities with the city of Vienna drawn. The site of the Castro Pretorio primary substation itself has a wealth of archaeological finds.