Clementina Bruno

Assessing a Potential Cyberattack on the Italian Electric System

This case study explores a hypothetic but plausible attack on the Italian electric system. Under particular scenarios of grid weakness, it could lead to a blackout costing the local economy 35 to 46 million euros in damages.

Efficiency in the Consolidation of the Italian Water Sector

Despite since the mid-90s the regulation has encouraged horizontal and vertical bundling, the Italian water and sewerage industry is still largely fragmented. This work investigates the potential benefits of the process of consolidation, relying on realistic ex-ante merger hypotheses. A parametric methodology is used to implement the Bogetoft and Wang 2005’s decomposition of potential gains from mergers (J Prod Anal 23:145–171). When looking at strictly technological aspects, results do not provide univocal evidence in favor or against merger strategies, recommending a case-by-case approach in evaluating real merger projects. Moreover, the largest potential gains are due to managerial rather than technological inefficiency, thus their effective ex-post attainment ultimately depend on the ability to tackle the change and on political will.

The economic sustainability of renewable energies

The transition toward a significant penetration of renewable sources in electricity generation, although desirable under an environmental viewpoint, is likely to be very costly due to the scarce adaptability to Renewable Energy (RE) sources characterized by relevant intermittency. In fact, generation from RE sources implies a change in the scheduling of the rest of generating facilities, which may affect operational costs of the power systems due to a more frequent cycling of thermal plants, i.e. a change in operating modes that occur in response to varying dispatching requirements. In this paper we investigate the effect on cost efficiency of energy operators as a consequence of the penetration of REs at the Country level using a two-step model based on Data Envelopment Analysis. The findings highlight a negative and significant impact of the index of penetration of REs on cost efficiency of firms involved in the production of programmable sources.