Italian electricity expands in the Mediterranean

Ongoing initiatives to increase the international role of Italy in the electrical field, in view of the growth of renewables in Africa and the Balkans

Continuous projects are being developed aiming at making the Italian electrical system more flexible, thus facilitating energy imports and exports. This way, Italy will become a hub for renewable and nuclear energy to and from the Balkans, North Africa and Europe.

In the last few days, the EU Commission selected 43 projects in the field of electricity and gas interconnection regarding the Community, committing funds for almost 4 billion euros. This is the highest amount ever spent for any EU energy infrastructure, showing the importance that interconnections have acquired to increase energy security and economic development. This funding was defined as a "smart investment” by the European President José Manuel Barroso, “capable of stimulating the short-term implementation of long-term goals".

Two of the European electricity projects regard Italy (other three projects concern gas). The first one concerns the submarine electrical connection with Malta, whose network is therefore no longer isolated and is connected to the European grid.

The other project concerns a new connection between Sicily and the mainland, to strengthen the potential power of the island, also in view of the connection between Europe and North Africa.

Many new projects involve TERNA (the company that manages the Italian electricity transmission network) to interconnect and strengthen current connections between Italy and neighbouring countries or areas.

Particularly significant is the ELMED project, involving the construction of a 1,000-MW submarine cable between Italy and Tunisia. It will initially be used to import into Europe 800 MW of electricity from a 1,200 MW power plant to be constructed within the same ELMED project, but it is clearly possible to integrate subsequently generation from renewable sources (wind and solar) that is expected to be produced throughout the Maghreb. An important project, therefore, that not only leads to greater supply efficiency and security, but also reinforces the role of the Italian electricity system towards North Africa, which many European countries rely on to increase the supply of “green” electricity.

For similar reasons, projects that make it possible to interchange electricity between Italy and the Balkans, which have an abundant supply of energy (hydroelectric) sources and other low cost sources are very interesting. Such as the interconnection project to Montenegro (1,000 MW, with a 450 km long cable, of which 375 km are underwater), the one with Croatia (1,000 MW, 240 km long) and with Albania, which is currently being defined.

Finally, several projects (already launched or proposed) must be mentioned that aim at strengthening the connections between the Italian, French, Austrian and Slovenian power grid.