Italy’s main operator for transport, storage and regasification of natural gas, Snam, is using industrial software company AVEVA’s supervisory control and data acquisition (Scada) technology system to great effect, to assist with the safe and reliable transport and dispatch of this strategic natural resource for the country.

Moreover, with the entrenched partnership between the companies performing successfully, Snam is upgrading its Scada system, as part of the continually evolving relationship between the two entities.

This was highlighted during a media site visit to Snam’s dispatching centre in San Donato Milanese (Milan), Italy, on May 20, as a side event of the AVEVA World 2026 conference.

With a pipeline of about 38 000 km in Italy and abroad, Snam leads Europe in terms of natural gas transportation. Moreover, the company operates one-sixth of the EU’s entire natural gas storage capacity and is also the region’s third-largest regasification entity, with a yearly managed or co-managed capacity of 28-billion cubic metres.

Snam is responsible for ensuring Italy’s security of supply through its infrastructure systems, enabling energy integration between different sources and promoting decarbonisation projects.

Snam uses a transport and storage Scada to support the monitoring and remote control processes of the transmission network, compressor stations and storage facilities.

Snam’s collaboration with AVEVA started in 2011, with the first system initially only for gas transportation. In 2020, this was merged with another system for gas storage, leading to one unified system that supports its transportation and storage processes.

This integrated system is used to monitor 13 compression stations and nine gas storage facilities (three additional ones will be incorporated in the near future).

About 7 000 onfield devices are managed through the network, with about 120 000 variables managed by the Scada.

The Scada is used for remote control of the plants, with about 200 commands sent by the control rooms daily, and around 300 alarms also managed on a daily basis.

The dispatching service runs continuously every day all year.

Owing to Snam managing critical national infrastructures, with its work identified by government as an essential service, it was crucial that the system had the highest level of safety and reliability, AVEVA pointed out.

As part of regular improvements, Snam is now in the process of upgrading the Scada, with this redesign leveraging the latest market technologies.

Some of the benefits it is expected to engender include new custom features, and a greater control of cybersecurity as requested by Italy’s cybersecurity national agency. The agency maintains access to Snam’s Scada, and will also run tests on the new system gauge to assess if there are any issues that need to be addressed.

AVEVA is providing the new Scada system, having worked with Snam over the past two years to configure its new architecture. The new Scada system will be implemented through a commissioning programme, with a short turnaround time envisioned, to ensure minimal disruption to Snam’s processes. This is slated to be completed by early 2027.

*Tasneem Bulbulia was a guest of AVEVA at the AVEVA World 2026 conference.