Società Idroelettrica Piemontese
The Società Idroelettrica Piemontese, SIP, was a major Italian electricity and telephone group, founded on 19 April 1918 from the Società industriale elettrochimica di Pont-Saint-Martin and led by engineer Gian Giacomo Ponti; its history ended in 1964 with the creation of ENEL and the new telephone SIP.[1]
Expansion
Among the earliest board members was engineer Pietro Fenoglio, who tried in vain to curb the «tumultuous expansion» driven by Ponti; the first president was Dante Ferraris, in 1918-1919.[2][3] From 1924 the company was chaired by Rinaldo Panzarasa, who together with the Banca Commerciale formed a controlling cartel against the Milan-based Edison.[4] In 1925 SIP created STIPEL, the telephone concessionaire for Piedmont, Lombardy and Valle d'Aosta, headquartered in the Palazzo dei Telefoni on Via Confienza; in Turin subscribers numbered 43,929 in 1942 and 300,000 in 1963.[5]
The Palazzo dell'Elettricità
The company's headquarters was the Palazzo dell'Elettricità at Via Bertola 40, designed in 1915 by Carlo Angelo Ceresa for the Cassa di Risparmio, sold unfinished to SIP in 1925 and inaugurated in 1928; damaged in 1942, it passed to ENEL upon nationalization.[6]
The IRI
After the 1929 crisis the group, no longer led by Ponti, was rescued by the IRI, which from 1933 became its main shareholder and entrusted the telephone companies to STET.[1] The nationalization of the electricity sector closed the group's history; the name SIP passed to the Società italiana per l'esercizio telefonico.[1][6]
Related articles: Pietro Fenoglio