An intelligent and flexible electricity grid, ready to receive the energy produced by thousands of renewable plants and guarantee a service that is increasingly in line with customer needs. Since yesterday, the PAN project, Puglia Active Network of E-Distribuzione, has been fully operational, which sees the region as the protagonist of the largest Smart Grid program in the world.
The presentation event, which took place on Friday 28 July at the Grande Albergo delle Nazioni in Bari, was attended by, among others, Andrea Cioffi, Undersecretary for Economic Development, Michele Emiliano, President of the Puglia Region, Antonio Decaro, Mayor of Bari, Domenico De Bartolomeo, President of Confindustria Puglia Region, Eugenio Di Sciascio, Rector of the Bari Polytechnic, Livio Gallo, Global Director of Infrastructures and Networks of the Enel Group, Carlo Tamburi, Director of Enel Italy, and Vincenzo Ranieri, Chief Executive Officer of E-Distribution.
“This project makes Puglia a state-of-the-art region on an international level – he comments Vincenzo Ranieri, CEO of E-Distribuzione – With PAN, a smart grid runs through the entire region, favoring the integration of renewables and transporting information and data together with electricity: a concrete example of how the distribution infrastructure can favor the energy transition and become increasingly efficient, sustainable, reliable. This is where the network of the future is born”.
The Puglia Active Network (PAN) project was launched in 2014 in response to the European tender NER 300, the financing instrument promoted by the European Commission and aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. PAN is based on three main actions: digitization of the electricity grid; regional development of a vehicle charging infrastructure; enabling citizens to actively manage consumption. The overall value of the project is 170 million euros, 50% co-financed by the European Commission.
Over 2 million Apulian citizens will benefit from a project which involved approximately 30 kilometers of medium voltage grid, to which over 44 renewable source production plants are connected. Increasingly smarter infrastructures able to communicate with each other and intervene immediately in the event of breakdowns.
Thanks to the technologies introduced with PAN, it will be possible to dynamically manage the introduction of an ever-increasing amount of renewable energy into the grid, optimizing the distribution of loads and at the same time improving the quality of the service. Furthermore, with the installation of 74 electric recharging points, located throughout the region, the development of electric mobility is being boosted.
In yesterday's event, Vincenzo Ranieri announced the funding by E-Distribuzione of 3 research doctorates with the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering of the Bari Polytechnic on topics related to the advanced management of distribution networks.
