CL6-2027-02-CLIMATE-01-two-stage (water resilience strategy): Our role in Research Projects

Società Acquedotti Tirreni S.p.A. (SAT – PIC 950641032) was established in La Spezia in 1912 for the design and construction of the town’s aqueduct. Since its foundation, the company has developed extensive experience in the design, construction and management of water supply systems. In the first decades of its history, SAT’s activities focused on two main areas: the supply of drinking water to citizens, including the direct management of customer relations, and the design and construction of aqueducts in several other municipalities, including Lerici, Sarzana, Arcola, Vezzano, Portovenere, Camaiore and Forte dei Marmi.

In recent history, starting in the 1970s, the company’s activities were mainly focused on supplying potable water to citizens and managing customer relations.

Today, SAT operates as a wholesale drinking water supplier. The company manages four well fields and a 16-km pipeline network, providing drinking water for approximately 50,000 people, equivalent to around 25% of the population of the Province of La Spezia.

SAT sells its entire water production to ACAM Acque, the company responsible for providing water services to end users within the applicable Italian regulatory framework. The service area falls under the governance of the EGATO Idrico (Ente di Governo dell’Ambito Territoriale Ottimale) of the Province of La Spezia.

SAT is an Italian SME with 15 employees and an annual turnover of €2.3 million.

SAT’s activities cover water abstraction and chlorination, the distribution of drinking water through its own pipeline network, as well as routine and extraordinary maintenance of well fields, pipelines and storage tanks.

From 2014 to 2017, SAT participated as a pilot site in the WISDOM European FP7 research project. In those years the company has made significant investments in technological innovation, including the implementation of a SCADA system for the monitoring and management of the entire water supply process, from abstraction to delivery to ACAM.

The system is supported by a network of sensors installed throughout SAT’s infrastructure, which continuously collect and transmit real-time data to the central server, enabling effective monitoring and management of the water network.

From 2018 to 2021, SAT participated in the FitOptiVis European Horizon 2020 research project as the pilot site for the Italian consortium. As part of the project, SAT installed an AI-based video surveillance system to enhance the security of its infrastructure. The system was interfaced with the existing SCADA system to facilitate the management of security alerts and notifications of potentially dangerous events.

In 2021, SAT launched a major investment programme in renewable energy, building two photovoltaic plants to serve its two main wells’ fields. The first plant, with a peak capacity of 450 kWp, began operations at the end of 2022. The second plant, with a peak capacity of 280 kWp, became operational at the end of 2024.

In 2025, the two plants generated a total of 859,942 kWh of electricity, accounting for 50.61% of the total electricity consumption of the two well fields.