ENEL CEO IN COLOMBIA FOR WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ON LATIN AMERICA

Rome/Medellin , June 16th, 2016  – Enel CEO and General Manager Francesco Starace is taking part in the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Latin America, which kicks off today in the Colombian city of Medellin and over two days will focus on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the continent.

Mr. Starace will be participating at the event in his capacity as Co-Chair of the regional meeting with the aim of shaping the agenda of topics and issues that will be addressed during the two-day meeting. The Enel CEO also holds the position of Co-Chair for WEF’s Energy Utilities and Energy Technologies Communities, a position to which he was appointed at the 46th annual WEF meeting in Davos-Klosters in January.

Around 550 participants from 40 countries and 300 organisations have travelled to Medellin  for the event, including heads of state, ministries and over 450 business leaders – of which about 100 are CEOs of Latin America’s largest companies. Discussions will focus on how Latin America can deal with both the socio-economic and political challenges it currently faces and the impact of the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, while safeguarding economic growth, health and care for the environment.

Mr. Starace is among the select group of 30 global CEOs taking part in the lunch with the Heads of States attending the event, namely President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos and Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina.

“Latin America is facing a key challenge: pursuing continued economic growth and development while tackling emissions and climate change,” said Enel CEO and General Manager Francesco Starace from the meeting in Medellin.  “We also need to deal with the fact that the people most affected by climate change are those forced to migrate; people with lower incomes and limited or no access to fundamental services such as education and health. Our main objectives at Enel are to ensure energy access for a growing number of people and energy at more competitive costs that is both sustainable and capable of preserving the environment, contributing as a result to social and economic progress. Renewable energy and new technologies can help us achieve these goals and do it fast; this will be crucial for our future because climate change is happening now, and it’s only through collaborative, cross-border and cross-sector efforts like those at today’s WEF that we can combat it”.

Mr. Starace will be taking part in two sessions at the forum: the first will be today's Transforming Latin America's Energy Landscape, during which the Enel CEO, together with other sector experts, will speak about what the continent's energy sector can do to adapt to the changes sweeping the industry. The second will be a special session concluding the event with all the five meeting’s Co-Chairs sitting together to develop an agenda for Latin America's economic future.

Co-Chairs are leaders of different industries’ top representatives who are grouped in communities formed by WEF in order to provide informal platforms for debate on global strategic issues of common concern to each industry.  The Co-Chairs are in charge of identifying themes and issues important to their community and guide it towards their resolution, increasing interaction between community members, and acting as the community ambassador by reaching out beyond the forum’s current membership. The Co-Chairs also lead the Steering Committee, the electricity industry’s decision-making WEF authority that meets four times a year.

This is the 11th time that WEF is being held in Latin America, and the second time that Colombia is hosting the meeting. The Enel Group is a member of the World Economic Forum and holds the status of Industry Partner, those members of the Forum that are actively involved in its mission at the industry level.


Enel in Latin America

Enel is a major player in the Latin American power market, where its subsidiary Enersis is one of the leading private sector utilities in terms of both installed capacity and number of customers. Enersis’ subsidiaries operate in five countries, have more than 17 GW of installed capacity from thermal, hydro and other renewables power plants and serve 13.5 million customers. In the generation sector, Enersis owns and operates 4.4 GW in Argentina, 1 GW in Brazil, 6.4 GW in Chile, 3.4 GW in Colombia and 2 GW in Peru. In the distribution sector, the Group is present in the Brazilian states of Cearà and Rio de Janeiro and in four of South America’s largest cities: Bogotá , Buenos Aires, Santiago and Lima. In the transmission sector, Enersis operates an interconnection power line between Brazil and Argentina. The Enel Group is also present in Latin America through its renewable energies division with over 2 GW of wind, PV solar and hydro plants located in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Uruguay and Mexico.
 
The Enel Group is present in Colombia’s generation sector through Emgesa, which owns and operates two thermal and 10 hydro power plants that have an overall installed capacity of 3.4 GW. It also operates in the country’s distribution sector through Codensa, which distributes and sells electricity in Bogotá and 103 municipalities in the departments of Cundinamarca, Boyacá and Tolima, serving around 2.9 million customers across an area of 14,456 km2.


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