“The production and distribution of electricity reflect the rate of economic development of a country… We strongly ask the regulatory bodies to remove all barriers and unequal treatment that still penalize the use of electricity. This is why we welcome the fact that a tariff review process is finally being launched aimed at overcoming the current progressive system, which penalizes electricity consumption exponentially". With these words Chicco Testa, president of Assoelettrica has opened the assembly of the Confindustria association in Milan to which the major electricity groups belong. Among these, Enel which is holding its annual shareholders' meeting almost simultaneously in Rome.
An assembly that can positively record the first slight increase in electricity consumption after five years in which industrial electricity demand collapsed to 92 levels. And that could mark a turning point (or at least a truce) in the relationship between the large electricity producers, increasingly oriented towards renewable energies, and green producers. Testa did not spare criticism of the incentive system ("I remain of the idea, even if it is not very popular, that in these 5 years behind us an enormous waste of resources has been consumed which has brought little benefit to Italy") but changed his tune against competing manufacturers. Indeed, it is significant that Agostino Re Rebaudengo, president of Assorinnovabili, the largest association of renewable sources, was invited as a speaker today.
"It is certainly not a coincidence - said Testa - because it no longer makes much sense that Assoelettrica, which, by installed capacity is the largest association also in the field of renewables, should stay on one side and assoRinnovabili on the other, throwing off some friendly smoke signals from time to time, but without really working together for the common future of the industry. I think we need to put the project of a re-aggregation within Confindustria on the agenda, through which we can give the electricity sector the voice it deserves and, at the same time, offer the best contribution to the industrial world as a whole”.
Coming to the agenda of Assoelettrica, the association has been pushing for some time towards the revision of the progressive rate that the Authority is studying on the recommendation of the government, since it considers it penalizing with respect to the revolution underway in electricity production, strongly linked to the development of renewable energies and the changing lifestyles of the population. Today, said Testa, "a greater electrification of our activities, heating and transport above all, is the only possible solution to contain the pollution of our urban areas" but the tariff system still in force today "induces households to limit the use of electricity to the point of causing that "electricity poverty", for which not only is the use of modern, technologically advanced and above all much more efficient electrical systems drastically discouraged , but it even makes it almost impossible to use devices that are now normally available to all families on a daily basis”.
Assoeletrica toasts to the final, complete opening of the electricity market scheduled for 1 January 2018 by the Competition law bill, presented by the Minister of Development Guidi (and in the process of being converted) which decrees the end of the "enhanced protection" regime for electricity and gas. And the association of electrical companies could not fail to see it favorably the introduction of the Capacity Market, which is also being evaluated by the Authority.
The sector is starting to see signs of recovery after a long period of deep red. “The economic crisis and, probably to a more limited extent, the efficiency of the end uses of electricity – concluded Testa – have led to a drop in the peak power required by the system to just over 51 MW and a reduction in consumption which in 2014 settled at minus 3% compared to 2013, with values now lower than those of 2002. The official 2014 data relating to the demand for electricity by sector are not yet available, but it is reasonable to estimate that consumption by industry was approximately 121 billion kWh: a value similar to that of 1992”.
