Our initiatives for strengthening submarine interconnections with the Balkans; from the electricity bridge with Montenegro to the interconnections with Croatia and Albania.
Terna is developing projects for new submarine interconnections in the Balkan area with the objective of contributing to the diversification of sources and energy supply areas and of reducing the price of electricity in Italy, in addition to increasing the safety levels of the Italian electricity system.
The Balkan area is characterized by a significant unused energy potential with particular regard to considerable hydro resources as well as opportunities for renewable sources plants and lignite and carbon mines.
The most significant project is the new submarine interconnection with Montenegro. The new connection will represent the first 1000 MW “electricity bridge” with the Balkan area. 415 km in length between Villanova (Abruzzo) and Tivat (Montenegro), 390 km of which made of submarine cable and 25 km of land cable for a total of 760 million euros of investments. The “electricity bridge” is undergoing the preliminary project planning phase on the part of Terna and of Montenegro’s grid operator, Prenos; agreements are being finalized for building the interconnection and drafting a development plan for Montenegro’s grid infrastructures linked to this cable. On February 6, 2010 an intergovernmental agreement was signed between Italy and Montenegro. On December 2, 2009 Terna began the authorization procedure for the Italian segment of the new cable.
The initiatives for new connections with the Balkans which are in progress are:
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the new submarine interconnection with Croatia, for which feasibility studies were conducted by Terna and by the Croatian grid operator HE-OPS; discussions are underway on a possible building schedule;
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the new interconnection with Albania, for which contacts with initiative promoters of new generation plants in Albania are underway.
