The presentation of the document saw the participation of Marco Sublimi, consultant for the management of public and private swimming facilities and member of the Scientific Committee of ForumPiscine, Dario Di Santo, director of FIRE, and Luca Bosi, president of CoNGePi.
Created by FIRE – Federazione Italiana per l’uso Razionale dell’Energia – in collaboration with CoNGePi – Confederazione Nazionale Gestori Piscine -, the second Rapporto Nazionale sul consumo energetico negli impianti natatori was presented in the frame of the first day of ForumPiscine 2026, part of XLeisure. Drawn up on the basis of data collected in the final months of 2025 on a sample of the national network of public swimming pool managers predominantly affiliated with CoNGePi (less numerous but more comprehensive compared to the previous edition), the study positions itself as a key tool to guide sector players in evaluations, plant choices and support measures, identifying investment opportunities oriented towards more efficient and carbon neutral facilities.
The evergreen issue of the energy bills
The document’s data confirm the critical phase experienced by the Italian swimming pool sector. The most burdensome expense item remains energy: even if the extreme increases of the post-pandemic period are a memory, electricity and gas bills continue to weigh on accounts, reducing the plafond for investments and forcing managers into constant maintenance operations on often dated facilities. The survey highlights how the sector is therefore caught between management expenses in continuous growth – from energy costs to those for personnel and maintenance – and revenues that remain substantially unchanged. This mechanism has progressively eroded the profit margins of facilities, today reduced to minimal terms.
Particularly delicate is the condition of public swimming pools in concession, where a scarce participation of the local owners in renovation projects is detected, with negative consequences on operational efficiency and on the appeal of the structures. Nevertheless, many operators continue to invest in their properties (even in concession) focusing on energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, safety standards and service quality. However, what slows down these efforts is the scarcity of economic resources: more than 40% of facility managers, in fact, identify in the lack of liquidity the main brake on modernization interventions, since the available incentives manage to compensate only partially for this gap.
Cost reduction
But how to cut costs? The report indicates that targeted interventions on energy and water efficiency, flanked by digital transformation processes, could really impact the reduction of expenses, allowing to redirect resources towards the main activities. Yet the degree of digitalization in the sector remains still low: between 2023 and 2025, only 8% of managers initiated similar projects.
In this scenario, the tools most appreciated by operators – such as energy services, EPC contracts, municipal incentives and tax reliefs – configure themselves as fundamental levers to break down financial obstacles and uncertainty on real economic benefits. According to Dario Di Santo, director of FIRE, investing in energy and water requalification is not only a necessity, but a strategic opportunity to strengthen the economic sustainability of structures and accompany their future evolution.
The rising importance of age
Finally, a reflection of demographic nature: the data highlight that to economic difficulties is added the aging of the population, imposing a redesign of swimming facilities and an expansion of the service offering, in order to intercept the new needs of users.
