Innovation: a new ENEA software to enhance resilience to severe weather and related hazards

ENEA and ACEA Distribuzione are testing an innovative software allowing to predict the risk posed to energy and water infrastructures by extreme weather events such as severe rainstorms, floods and landslides. The software, called CIPCast, was developed at the ENEA Laboratory for the Analysis and Protection of Critical Infrastructures and tested in the control room of ACEA Distribution in Rome.

Two distinct applications were developed: to estimate the impact of rainfall on the power distribution grid and to optimize the management of  events related to the Jubilee in every area of the Capital City.

"Once data from sensors and weather forecasts are acquired -Vittorio Rosato, Head of the ENEA Laboratory for the Analysis and Protection of Critical Infrastructures, explains- the application develops risk scenarios, identifies  the elements of the infrastructure that are at risk and calculates the impact of a possible electricity outage on citizens and the productive system. Acquiring this information - Rosato adds- enables the electric utility and  the authorities to deal with emergency situations, taking  effective measures to ensure prompt interventions".

Born out of the need to face weather events increasingly frequent and intense and posing additional hazard in an urban environment, the CIPCast software integrates geospatial data with weather forecasts up to one hour ahead (nowcasting) and short-to-medium term forecasts providing information on the hydrogeological asset, the recurrence of seismic events and other significant natural events.

Between 2010 and the early 2015, in Italy there were 43 days of electricity blackout due to bad weather. Between 2013 and 2014 five cases of floods in large parts of the city occurred in a few hours due to heavy rainfall. Also in Rome, in little over five years of monitoring activities (from October 2010 to the end of 2015) there were 15 extreme weather events recorded on the climate hazard map and the city experienced a subway and suburban trains service interruption lasting 24 days due to heavy rainfall. ⁽¹⁾

New technology solutions are therefore under development to strengthen cities’ response capacity to emergency situations, thus improving their resilience.

The system ENEA is testing in collaboration with ACEA Distribuzione - soon to be extended to the ATO2 water network - is part of the project RoMA (Resilience Enhancement of Metropolitan Areas), funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Research.  The project was inspired by the technologies developed under the European project CIPRNet (Critical Infrastructure Preparedness and Resilience Research Network) for the Competence Centers for the analysis of the risk of critical infrastructures in Europe, that will provide a 24-h risk analysis  of critical infrastructures with a prediction from a few hours to a few days.

The system - such as the one being tested in Rome - will provide Civil Protection and Local Authorities with directions for strategies and actions to be implemented for reducing the impact of weather events and effectively restore services.

"Increasing power grid resilience to prevent power outages is crucial for avoiding consequences on the population and  the so called “domino effect”, cascading failures across critical infrastructures such as water supply, waste disposal, railways and telecommunications” Maurizio Pollino, researcher at the ENEA Laboratory for the Analysis and Protection of Critical Infrastructures, points out.

For more information please contact:

Vittorio Rosato, ENEA Casaccia Research Center,  vittorio.rosato@enea.it

¹ Data from: Legambiente Dossier “ Italian cities and the challenge of climate change” developed in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea