Working in a regulated industry

We distribute gas locally, from the delivery points to your home, where we are responsible for your meter and therefore for measuring your consumption.

We don’t import or produce gas. We aren’t even involved in the first transportation step (through the high-pressure maxi pipelines). Our aim is to accept the gas from the transporter and deliver it to Italian households and businesses.
We don’t sell gas – instead we let you choose the sales company that’s most convenient for you.

Our service is regulated by the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment, so regulatory aspects play a significant role in our company’s business. The Authority issues resolutions, through which it defines:

  • Tariffs
  • Service provision methods
  • Safety and quality standards

The distribution service consists of transporting gas through local pipeline networks, from points of delivery at the reduction and measurement stations interconnected with the transport networks (“city-gates”) up to the final delivery points (PdR) to end customers (households and businesses), regardless of the chosen sales company. The gas distribution service is performed, in fact, by transporting the gas on behalf of authorised sales companies, whichever they may be, for marketing to end customers.

Natural gas metering involves the reading, validation and provision of the consumption data to the sales companies and to end customers.
For each of the two services – distribution and metering – the regulation ensures an adequate level of remuneration through revenue recognition for the service provided.

The revenues are achieved in such a way as to recognise:

  • Investment costs (CAPEX)
  • Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)
  • Operating costs (OPEX)

The application of tariffs, set by the Authority, is based on six different geographical areas that guarantee fairness for the end customers.

How is the gas distribution service assigned?

Gas distribution was traditionally performed under concessions. In the past, distribution services were assigned to municipalities through direct negotiations. From 2000, through Italian Legislative Decree no. 164 of 23 May 2000 (the Letta Decree), it was decided that they could be assigned only through tenders and for a maximum 12 years. Then from 2007, to implement these provisions, the minimum geographic areas (ATEMs) were established first, followed by the tender criteria for assessing bids. Consequently, the distributor awarded the concession becomes the service concessionaire for the group of municipalities in the ATEM in question.
Further information on the regulations applying to natural gas distribution can be found in the regulatory references published by the Procurement Safety and Energy Infrastructures Department (Geographic areas for the natural gas distribution sector), on the web site of the Ministry for Economic Development.

Our strength also comes from our capacity to build constructive relations with different players in and around the gas chain: public institutions, representative bodies and consumer associations.


We give great importance to relations with institutions. These allow us to be continuously updated on legal and regulatory developments in Italy and at European level, and at the same time nurture the company’s interests, monitoring the progress of all measures concerning the natural gas distribution sector.

Among the issues monitored, those of most interest to Italgas are associated with development of the natural gas energy infrastructure, but also – in more general terms – with the environment, climate change and energy safety.

All interaction with the various public players is strongly marked by the strictest respect for the principles of transparency, fairness and professionalism contained in our Code of Ethics.

To confirm the importance of these values, we decided on voluntary inclusion in the European Commission’s Transparency Register, in the Ministry for Economic Development’s Transparency Register and in the Register of Interest Representatives kept by the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Registration involves automatic adoption of the respective Codes of Conduct that guarantee the operations adequacy of the businesses registered.

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