Adnkronos Roma, 14 mar. (Adnkronos) – ''Per la sua posizione geografica strategica al centro del Mediterraneo, l’Italia rappresenta un ponte energetico tra Europa, Nord Africa e Medio Oriente''. Terna, presentando il piano di sviluppo 2025, conferma gli interventi di interconnessione con l’estero, al fine di ''garantire sicurezza, sostenibilità ed efficienza, tramite la possibilità di mutuo soccorso tra sistemi interconnessi.
In aggiunta, queste infrastrutture costituiscono un fondamentale strumento di flessibilità per condividere risorse di generazione e capacità di accumulo, a fronte della variabilità della produzione rinnovabile''.
Among the main projects planned by Terna, we highlight 'Sa.Co.I.3', the project to modernize and strengthen the current interconnection between Sardinia, Corsica and Tuscany, the interconnection project between Italy and Tunisia 'Elmed', the doubling of the Italy-Greece interconnection, which ''will allow the safe management of the entire Southern Zone and will promote efficient energy supplies, thanks to the possibility of enabling new resources through the coupling of the electricity market and maintaining the exchange of energy between the two countries even in the presence of maintenance''.
Furthermore, the 2025 development plan includes further interconnection projects, known as 'Merchant lines', managed by other promoters and/or non-holders of transport concessions. The number of such initiatives has accelerated in recent years. 11 requests for over 12 GW of capacity are in the consultation phase. Terna reports that the management of requests for connection to the high voltage grid, mainly concentrated in the south and on the islands, allows for ''a systemic vision of the future evolution of renewable plants and storage systems, so as to achieve synergic development of infrastructures and guarantee maximum efficiency in the construction of network works''.
According to Terna data, as of December 31, 2024, there were 348 GW of connection requests for renewable energy plants (of which 152 GW of solar, 110 GW of onshore wind and 86 GW of off-shore wind) and 277 GW for storage systems. These numbers, which "far exceed the national requirement identified by the Terna-Snam 2024 scenario description document and national targets, confirm that the country represents a significant investment option, also thanks to legislative mechanisms to support the construction of renewable energy plants and to a regulation that incentivizes their development," according to the company.
In addition, the last two years have seen an increase in requests for consumer users, who draw energy directly from the national transmission grid and include, for example, high energy consumption plants. Connection requests for these users can concern both the adaptation of already operational plants and the connection of new plants to the grid. This trend is largely attributable to data centers: as of December 31, 2024, requests amounted to approximately 30 GW, an annual figure 24 times higher than that of 2021. These requests are mainly located in Northern Italy, especially in Lombardy.
Terna announces that ''with the aim of promoting an ever-wider enabling of renewables and to guarantee a high quality of service, in synergy with the distribution service concessionaires, a set of primary cabins has been identified to be strengthened or connected to the National Transmission Grid''. The trend of these connection requests has further expanded due to the funds made available under the PNRR. Terna has defined an approach to managing connection requests based on the definition of 76 'microzones' that ''allow for the effective modelling of a perimeter within which to study connection solutions and quantify the additional renewable capacity that can be integrated into the grid''.