Raffaele De Marco, the CEO, and Francesca Coletta, the CFO, accepted the award during the States General of the Green Economy in Rimini

 

Areti’s “RomeFlex” project received recognition during the Sustainable Development Award 2025, whose ceremony took place today at Ecomondo in Rimini, the States General of the Green Economy. The award was accepted by Raffaele De Marco, Chief Executive Officer of Areti, and Francesca Coletta, the CFO and head of the business unit that developed the project.

The Sustainable Development Award 2025, now in its 15th edition, is promoted by the Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Italian Exhibition Group, under the patronage of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security. “RomeFlex” was awarded for its particular relevance in the field of decarbonisation and adaptation to climate change. Developed by Areti, a company of the Acea Group that manages Rome’s electricity network, the project aims to create a complete, advanced and inclusive local flexibility market serving citizens and businesses.

To address the growing electrification of consumption and the increasing stress on the distribution network, an infrastructure capable of meeting new needs and integrating innovative functionalities is required. This calls for the implementation of systems that ensure operational flexibility and the digitalisation of operations. With a “smart grid”, connected citizens are offered the opportunity to actively participate in flexibility services, and in return they receive clear and appropriate financial remuneration for the service provided, thereby helping to reduce household energy costs. The flexibility system makes it possible to adjust one’s consumption and energy production to respond to peaks in demand on the electricity grid and to keep it constantly balanced and secure, thereby optimising service quality. Areti was the first Italian distributor (DSO) to launch a local flexibility market project managed by GME. Thanks to its advanced technological architecture and open market procedures, “RomeFlex” enables all customers whose low- or medium-voltage systems are connected to Rome’s distribution network to modulate their consumption and energy production by offering flexibility services to the electricity grid in exchange for clear and transparent financial compensation: for example, users can rely on the storage system of their generation plant, their electric car, or simply coordinate the operation of their household appliances (e.g., heat pumps, etc.).

“RomeFlex represents technological and market-design excellence in the field of flexibility services and also aims to contribute to the ongoing energy transition process, which will lead to a transformation of the electricity sector, one increasingly characterised by generation from renewable sources distributed across the territory, as well as by progressive growth in consumption linked to electric mobility and in summer and winter air-conditioning, increasingly provided through heat pumps rather than gas boilers,” stated Raffaele De Marco, Chief Executive Officer of Areti.