Digitalization

Digital transformation is a key factor for companies in the energy sector, as it can provide solutions and technologies to meet the challenges of the energy transition, optimize grid management, improve the customer experience, enable the development of renewable energy, and facilitate the work experience, ensuring high levels of service and operational efficiency. Through a new streamlined organizational and operational model, the Global Information & Communication Technology unit, within the Global Services 
Function, aims to:

• ensure and increase the efficiency of the service levels offered by Enel’s digital solutions;
• increase effectiveness with a focus on demand management, adoption and recurring cost control processes;
• enhance internalization, maintaining expertise on key technologies through insourcing plans, increased training and tools to increase productivity.

Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, IoT and the cloud can generate major benefits in terms of streamlining business processes, but attention must also be paid to the impact they can have on the environment and people. To achieve sustainable progress, Enel’s digital transformation therefore aims to use digital solutions based on specific sustainability criteria. For this reason, the main lines of action in 2023 addressed:

• decarbonization and reduction of emissions linked to digital solutions;
  
• circularity of the digital devices and materials comprising the digital assets of the Group;
• promotion of social inclusion through the development of assistive technologies and solutions that ensure accessibility and generate value by meeting local needs;
• promotion of best environmental performance and adoption of human rights principles with the suppliers of digital products and solutions.

Enel is also a promoter in Italy – together with the Foundation for Digital Sustainability – of the first UNI/PdR 147:2023 Reference Practice which sets out the requirements and guidelines for more sustainable and inclusive by-design digital technology. The Practice identifies 58 sustainability indicators, which apply to all stages of the life cycle of a digital transformation project: from initiation through to planning, execution and monitoring. The indicators are tied to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to understand the extent to which a given digital transformation project is able to harness the full potential of digital technology, while meeting the economic, social and environmental sustainability criteria. In particular, Enel has globally applied the Practice to the project of digitizing meters for energy withdrawn and fed into the grid. This highlights the strength of the goals of innovation (SDG 9), responsible consumption and economic growth through software reuse (SDGs 8 and 12), while the gender equality of the predominantly male development team emerged as a point of improvement (SDG 5). The Practice was also applied to the Data Governance project for the development of a search engine to easily find active contract documents thanks to a series of filters on contract metadata (contract date, supplier, products/services, etc.). The strengths of the project include: the goals of innovation (SDG 9), knowledge sharing within the business community (SDGs 4 and 11), and good balance in terms of the working hours needed for development activities (SDGs 3 and 8); whereas the goal to enhance the use of information, which is still not widely shared (SDG 12), emerged as a point for improvement.

Lastly, in 2023 Enel globally launched a project to assess the ethical risk in the Group’s use of artificial intelligence, in line with the requirements of new regulations at European level (AI Act). The project highlighted the need to manage the design of digital solutions based on a methodology to identify the risks, social implications and impact of technologies, and to develop a compliance-by-design model to define the most appropriate mitigation strategies for the identified risks. As a result, a “recommendations” document was drafted for the Group, containing the points to consider when designing new digital solutions.

Enel has developed a model to assess the web portals available to customers and colleagues in terms of digital inclusiveness, taking into account the social, environmental and economic sustainability impacts. The Inclusive Web Portal© framework was codified through copyright in 2023; it identifies 89 requirements, with user experience and digital accessibility as key elements, which aim to ensure digital inclusiveness.
The framework highlights persistent diversity, as well as different abilities of circumstance, demographics, economic, labor, cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and gender identity diversity. The model makes it possible to identify the actions to be taken to promote a digitally inclusive environment that can create value and meet the needs of all stakeholders, so that no one is left behind in the digital transformation process.