Terna is the main owner of the national electricity grid with over 63,500 km of high voltage lines throughout Italy. Each year, Terna approves the Electricity Grid’s Development Plan which is subject to the Strategic Environmental Assessment to ensure that one of the country’s strategic infrastructures is always in line with the development of the national energy system. 


The Plan represents the tool for developing the national electricity transmission grid and is drafted each year by Terna based on the following:

• the trend of the electricity demand and the forecast of the electricity demand to be met;

• the need to upgrade the grid;

• the requests for connecting new generation plants to the grid.
   

   

The document includes all the measures to be implemented or being completed regarding the building and strengthening of power stations, of power lines for connecting new generation plants, for eliminating grid congestion and for developing interconnections with foreign countries. These measures include both those included in the previous Plan and not yet implemented, and the new projects.


Developing the electricity transmission grid has many objectives:
 

• guaranteeing safety and continuity of the supply;

• increasing efficiency and competitiveness of the transmission service and of the national electricity system;

• improving the service’s quality;

• connecting all the eligible parties to the national transmission grid;

• reducing grid congestion;

• developing and strengthening interconnections with foreign countries;

• respecting environmental and landscape constraints.
   

   

Summary of the National Electricity Transmission Grid Development Plan


The Italian Network is interconnected with the system of European Network, Terna belongs to the ENTSO-E, the European Network of Grid Operators for the Transmission of Electricity that represents 41 grid Operators belonging to 34 countries in Europe including South-East European countries (excluding Albania and Kosovo).


The ENTSO-E, with headquarters in Brussels, has the task of adopting European grid codes on trans-border issues, the European electricity grid’s ten year Development Plan.









ENTSO-E’s Network Development Plan at the EU level

EC Regulation No. 714/09 attributes ENTSO-E, the European Network of Electricity Transmission System Operators, the task of adopting every two years and publishing a non binding EU-wide ten-year development plan (TYNDP), that includes integrated network models, new scenarios and forecasts for demand and offer at the European level.

Furthermore, the regulation establishes that within the ENTSO-E, network operators implement regional collaboration for contributing, among other activities, to the adoption of investment plans at the regional level.

The EU-wide Network Development Plan is based on National Investment Plans and includes Regional Investment Plans as well as EU-wide planning aspects for European infrastructures with trends for trans-European networks in the energy sector (TEN-E). The EU-wide Network Development Plan additionally identifies investment needs regarding cross-border capacity and possible delays due, for example, to authorization procedures.

ACER, the Agency for Cooperation of National Regulatory Authorities, issues its opinion on the ENTSO-E’s Network Development Plan in order to assess the consistency of the National Development Plans with the EU-wide plan. The EU-wide development plan is also subject to a consultation process by ENTSO-E.

On March 1, 2012 ENTSO-E published on its website the “TYNDP 2012 Package” for public consultation by operators by April 26, 2012. The TYNDP 2012 Package includes the following documents: the 2012 ten-year development plan, the six regional investment plans and the report on forecast scenarios and adequacy of the European Electricity System.

Following the consultation process, ENTSO-E adopts and publishes the network ten-year development plan according to Article 8 of EC Regulation No. 714/2009.

The Document "ENTSO-E Pilot Ten Year Network Development Plan" (30 Mb), had been published on June 30, 2010 as a pilot document adopted by ENTSO-E in 2010 while awaiting the “Third Energy Package” to become effective.