Italy's largest natural gas distributor concluded a three-day nationwide flood preparedness exercise in June 2026 alongside Civil Protection authorities, testing digital command systems and remote shutoff protocols that proved essential for residents across the Po river basin—a region accounting for roughly 40% of Italy's GDP and home to more than 16 million people.
What You Need to Know
• Italgas operated remote control systems from digital command centers during simulated flooding, ensuring gas networks can be monitored and shut down safely even when physical access is impossible.
• The Exe Po 2026 exercise, held June 25-27, 2026, spanned Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, and Veneto, testing coordination between regional emergency rooms and utility operators in real disaster conditions.
• Advanced leak-detection technology and underground mapping tools were stress-tested to prevent gas dispersions during flood events, a critical safety concern when infrastructure is submerged.
• The drill, inspired by the October 2000 floods that devastated northwest Italy, involved 1,000 personnel in Piedmont alone and over 350 volunteers daily across the four regions.
• IT-Alert test messages were sent to residents in affected areas, giving citizens advance warning of how emergency alerts work during real flood scenarios.
A National Stress Test for Infrastructure Resilience
The Exe Po 2026 exercise, held from June 25-27, 2026, marked the first comprehensive test of Italy's capacity to manage a catastrophic interregional flood scenario affecting the Po and its main tributaries, including the Tanaro and Sesia rivers. Coordinated by the Italy Civil Protection Department in partnership with AIPO (the Interregional Agency for the Po River), the operation mobilized roughly 250 municipalities under active alert protocols, with 30 directly involved in operational scenarios.
Italgas, which operates nearly 75,000 kilometers of gas pipelines across Italy—many buried beneath flood-prone terrain—participated through its presence in Regional Operating Rooms (SOR) and Rescue Coordination Centers (CCS). The company's technicians worked from hubs in Turin, Viadana (Mantua province), and the Po Delta, simulating the management of gas distribution networks under conditions of rising water, loss of road access, and potential infrastructure damage.
What distinguished this exercise from routine drills was the integration of digital infrastructure that allows centralized control even when local teams cannot reach critical sites. The company deployed its Digital Network and Plant Command and Control Center (CIRD), a facility that enables 24/7 remote monitoring and management of digitized networks. During the exercise, Italgas tested a controlled transfer of supervisory activities between two national CIRD locations, verifying that management systems maintain full operational continuity even if one command center is compromised during an emergency.
Technology Tested Under Extreme Conditions
The simulation provided a rare opportunity to field-test cutting-edge tools in conditions approximating real disaster stress. Among the systems validated:
DANA Platform (Digital Advanced Network Automation): This intelligent network management system allows remote control of gas distribution plants, enabling operators to isolate sections of the network, adjust pressure, and execute emergency shutdowns without physical presence. During flooding, when roads become impassable and personnel safety is at risk, such capabilities are not merely convenient—they are life-preserving.
3D Asset Mapping: Italgas deployed digital representation technology that creates precise underground maps of buried infrastructure. In flood scenarios, knowing the exact location and depth of pipelines, valves, and junction points becomes critical for damage assessment and for guiding rescue teams away from subsurface hazards.
Picarro Leak Detection Systems: Advanced monitoring equipment designed for preventive network surveillance was tested for its ability to detect gas leaks even when infrastructure is submerged or obscured by floodwater. Early leak detection can prevent explosions, fires, and gas poisoning—risks that multiply when populations are displaced and emergency responders are stretched thin.
What This Means for Residents
For anyone living in the Po basin—from the alpine foothills of Piedmont through the industrial heartland of Lombardy to the deltaic plains of Veneto—the exercise translates into tangible safety improvements. The Po's flood risk is not theoretical: the October 2000 event caused billions of euros in damage, and climate patterns suggest extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.
The collaboration between Italgas and Civil Protection authorities ensures that in a real flood scenario, gas supplies can be managed to prevent secondary disasters. A ruptured gas main in a flooded residential area can transform a natural disaster into a catastrophic explosion. The ability to remotely monitor, isolate, and secure sections of the network means fewer evacuation orders, faster recovery, and reduced risk to first responders.
Residents in the 250+ municipalities covered by the exercise should note that their local emergency plans are now updated with lessons from this drill. The IT-Alert system—Italy's national public warning platform—was tested during Exe Po 2026, specifically for scenarios involving the potential collapse of large dams such as the Porto della Torre dam in Lombardy. If you live in affected areas, you may have received test messages on your mobile phone in late June 2026. This dry run revealed both coverage strengths and areas needing improvement for real emergencies.
Coordination and Continuity
The exercise underscored the multi-layered coordination required in disasters that cross regional boundaries. Prefectures in five provinces activated their provincial-level Rescue Coordination Centers, verifying that local municipal emergency operations centers could function even with communications disrupted.
For utilities like Italgas, this means operating within a broader ecosystem that includes regional Civil Protection offices, municipal governments, volunteer organizations, and technical experts. The company's participation in the regional operating rooms allowed real-time information exchange: as Civil Protection teams simulated levee monitoring, bridge inspections, and evacuation of vulnerable facilities (including animal shelters), Italgas operators tracked gas network status, identified at-risk infrastructure, and simulated field interventions.
Approximately 1,000 people were mobilized in Piedmont alone—a figure that hints at the scale of human and technical resources required for effective disaster response. Across the four regions, over 350 volunteers per day participated in simulated rescues, damage assessments using specialized AIDEI forms (designed specifically for hydrogeological emergency evaluations), and deployment of mobile water pumps and drones for levee surveillance.
The Subsidence Factor
One aspect that amplifies flood vulnerability—particularly in the eastern Po basin and Romagna—is land subsidence. Decades of groundwater extraction and, in some areas, historical gas extraction have caused the ground to sink, creating zones where floodwaters stagnate longer and drainage is more difficult. This geological reality makes the presence of robust, remotely manageable gas infrastructure even more critical: areas that flood easily also recover slowly, extending the period during which buried utilities remain at risk.
The 3D Asset Mapping technology tested during Exe Po 2026 directly addresses this challenge by providing precise data on where pipelines lie in relation to subsidence zones, allowing engineers to prioritize monitoring and reinforcement in the most vulnerable stretches.
Beyond Italy: European Context
Italy's approach aligns with broader European Union efforts to strengthen energy infrastructure resilience. The EU's Electricity Coordination Group promotes cross-border information exchange and best practices on grid security, while recent legislation (the "European grids package") aims to streamline permitting for critical infrastructure and improve transnational planning. Although Italgas operates within Italy's borders, the principles tested during Exe Po 2026—remote management, digital redundancy, and coordinated emergency response—reflect continent-wide standards for protecting energy networks from climate-driven threats.
The exercise also highlights a preventive maintenance philosophy gaining traction across Europe: rather than waiting for disasters to strike, utilities and governments are investing in simulation, early-warning systems, and technological upgrades that reduce both the probability and the severity of infrastructure failures.
Preparedness as Policy
The Po basin exercise is part of a larger Italian strategy to integrate scientific expertise, technological innovation, and operational capacity into a unified Civil Protection response. The involvement of private utilities like Italgas in public drills reflects a recognition that modern disasters require hybrid public-private coordination. Energy infrastructure is both a potential victim of natural disasters and a multiplier of risk if it fails catastrophically.
Exe Po 2026 provided "fundamental proof" of system efficiency, according to preliminary evaluations. While detailed recommendations await full analysis, the exercise has already generated important elements for updating emergency plans and improving operational procedures. The "extraordinary operational readiness and high level of technical specialization" demonstrated by volunteers and professionals alike suggest that Italy's Civil Protection network—often tested by earthquakes, wildfires, and floods—continues to evolve in response to new challenges.
For residents across the Po valley, the message is clear: the infrastructure beneath your streets is now smarter, the coordination among responders is tighter, and the capacity to manage a major flood—while still daunting—has measurably improved. The next real test, unfortunately, is only a matter of time.
