Coronavirus accelerates European utilities' digital drive

Multinational energy company Enel in Italy, in February. European utilities are having to speed up the adoption of new technologies as the coronavirus crisis forces them to use software, not people, to steer critical infrastructure. — Reuters

MILAN/FRANKFURT: When Covid-19 plunged Italy into lockdown, it was decision time at the Verampio power station. The control room, which runs a fleet of hydroelectric plants across the Piedmont region, hard hit by the pandemic, had to be secured to keep the lights on.

Operator Enel, Europe's largest utility, moved quickly to create a parallel backup control room at a smaller site 30 km (18.6 miles) away while also plugging some key workers into the plant's database so they could work from home to help keep control.