In love with their work, for three generations.
Giulio Masnari is 48 years old and works as a maintenance technician at the Italgen hydroelectric power plants of Mazzunno, Dezzo and Idro Dezzo, which are located between Val Camonica and Val di Scalve. They are the same places where the history of Italgen began in the early 1900s, whose birth can be traced back to the construction of the Dezzo hydroelectric power plant. It was built on the intuition of Cesare Pesenti who, fresh from graduating in hydraulic engineering, had the idea of exploiting water energy to power cement plants. And it is precisely in those places and in those years that the history of the Masnari family is intertwined with the industrial history of Italgen, both Giulio's grandfather and father worked for Italgen, which at the time was still part of the Italcementi Group.
“My grandfather Carlo worked from 1921 to 1964 at the Mazzunno hydroelectric power plant, first as a technician and later as plant manager. Unfortunately I never met him, but I clearly remember that my grandmother proudly displayed in the house the photo of when my grandfather received a medal for his forty years of service in the company from the Giampiero Pesenti,” he says with a hint of emotion. “The history of my family is deeply linked to the territory and to this company – explains Giulio – in fact, after my grandfather, my father Enrico also worked at the station from 1964 to 1994.”
And it was his father who passed the baton on to Giulio in 1994, when he started working in Italgen as a technician. Today Giulio looks after the maintenance of the Mazzunno, Dezzo and Idro Dezzo plants, a vitally important task to ensure the perfect and complete functionality of the plants, which work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“Thanks to regular maintenance, including preventive maintenance, and constant monitoring of numerous operating parameters, we are able to ensure system efficiency levels of over 95%” says Giulio, who also explains to us the extent to which the work has changed over time. Over the years, progressive automation of the plants has made it possible not only to make production more efficient, but also to facilitate the work of the operators responsible for keeping clean and without obstruction the intake channels (6 km of them at Dezzo and 9 km at Mazzunno), which convey the river water to the penstock and subsequently to the turbines. The grates that filter the water also have to be kept clear of waste and debris.
“At the times of my grandfather and my father the guardian had to stay on the intake all day, even at night, in the rain or a blizzard. And above all, he had to intervene manually to remove debris or obstacles." And so, what was once done manually with rakes is now the task of the screens, which filter the river water, and of the mechanical gates, which clean the channels of the sand and gravel that are deposited in the tanks. All can be operated remotely. Thanks to technology, operators can use the control panels remotely, monitoring and intervening without having to be physically on the spot. “We constantly monitor the systems from our mobile phones, and we can carry out many tasks on the phone. A huge advantage, especially if you consider that some intakes can only be reached on foot after a 40-minute walk on impervious paths.”
So everything is easy? No way! Even today, Giulio's work is difficult, but he is very attached to it. “My life is here, in these valleys. My grandfather lived for years in the company house next to the power station. My dad, his four sisters and his two brothers were born and raised in the power station, and even today they ask me if the turbine is causing problems or how the intakes are going" he says emotionally. “And then I love this valley, when I go out walking for an inspection and I see these views I feel lucky, and it's the same thing that suppliers and technicians who come to the plant tell me: how lucky you are to work here!””
