Energy, the climate and the challenges to overcome: do we want a Zero Carbon Italy by 2025? So we need to run: turn off the coal-fired plants (7 thousand megawatts), push decisively on the construction/upgrading of new renewable plants, exploit natural gas, biomethane and hydrogen both to balance the electricity grid and to replace traditional fossil fuels. The list is precise, urgent and I am having put it in black and white Terna and Snam with CDP who summoned operators and stake holders, called the government to appeal and organized two international days in Rome to discuss the Italian energy transition.
- States General of the energy transition start from these numbers: to achieve the zero-carbon challenge in the next five years we need +5.400 Megawatts (MW) of new gas-fired production capacity, +12.000 MW of new renewable capacity, +1.000 MW demand-response, +3.000 MW of capacity accumulation (batteries) and investments in the national transmission grid to create an additional 4500 Mega Volt Ampère of synchronous compensators, essential for stabilizing the grid.
A concrete and operational cut, therefore on which to think and discuss to find solutions. For sure a great revolution, which also extends to transport, mobility and housing, has started and if we want to reach the European objectives for 2030, on which Italy is committed with the Pniec (National Energy and Climate Plan) there is still a lot to do.
THE OBJECTIVES TO ACHIEVE, THE OPPORTUNITIES AND THE GAP TO FILL
The EU targets are ambitious and the Green New Deal of the new president Ursula von der Leyen has strengthened them. By 2030 it is necessary to reduce energy consumption by 104 Mtoe (energy efficiency), bring the share of renewable sources to 30% of gross final energy consumption (and not only electricity, therefore), reduce CO40 emissions by 2% compared to 1990. According to Confindustria calculations, they are needed 96 billion investment in energy infrastructure. Not a small commitment but also, noted Luca D'Agnese, director of Cdp Infrastrutture, "a great opportunity for growth and investment". It's not just about taking action to increase by 40.000 MW of additional renewable generation capacity, essentially by sun and wind but also to act on the air conditioning of buildings and in particular on 203 million square meters of public administration buildings, to "attack" transport by renewing the fleet of local public transport. Another chapter of interest for CDP Infrastrutture is Waste to fuel, the recycling of waste to be transformed into biofuels, and the heat process sector in the industrial sector.
SNAM AND TERNA: PROPOSALS AND OPERATIONAL PLANS
”If we look at the 2040 world scenarios of the International Energy Agency, from a bottom up, we are off course with respect to the Paris Accords. What keeps me up at night is how to decarbonise coal, gas and oil molecules which today represent 83% of world energy consumption at the lowest cost and in the shortest possible time”, began theCEO of Snam Marco Alverà. Looking at the scenarios top down, that is, from the projections that start from the result to be achieved to arrive at the actions to be performed, however, the numbers change. According to Irena (the International Agency for Renewables), Alverà mentioned again, to achieve the 2040 objectives it will be necessary to reach a share of renewables equal to 38% of final consumption. How to reduce the CO2 share in the remaining 60%? “Italy – continued Alverà – can play a leading role both for the existing interconnections with North Africa and for the possession of enabling technologies”. Snam's guidelines are on renewable gas and on the mix with hydrogen, both green (i.e. obtained using green energy for the electrolysis process) and blue (i.e. using methane) combined with CO2 capture. In particular, he concluded, "Italy can reach 23% of hydrogen by 2050 without increasing bills".
Luigi Ferraris, CEO and general manager of Terna, calls everyone – operators, politicians, businesses and the community – “ad a concerted effort to make the energy transition a great opportunity”. It is, he added, "a revolution comparable to the industrial one which will necessarily have an impact on Terna's business". The group has already made significant investments in the 2019 development plan to stabilize the grid. But, he explained, "renewable source plants are far from places of consumption and it will increasingly be necessary to imagine a bidirectional flow of energy". In other words, if up to now we have gone mainly from North to South, now the reverse will be necessary.
If Terna's first concern is to guarantee security, i.e. the grid's ability to react positively to unforeseen external events, the leap in quality - added Ferraris - "is to move from a culture of the Watt to a culture of the Byte", as it is essential for the network manager to have fast and reliable information on what is happening along the network. Hence a very strong push towards digitization to manage the discontinuity of flows from renewable sources. Finally, Ferraris was very clear: to ensure 40.000 MW of additional renewable power need quick permissions, a real one fast track to accelerate investments, even those on the network. And again: launch of the Capacity market, long-term PPA contracts, auctions for incentives. 2025 is very close but so are 2030 and 2040.
Finally, Terna and Snam have signed a cybersecurity agreement on its energy infrastructure. The two groups undertake to share and analyze information to prevent and counter attacks or damage that could jeopardize the functioning of the critical IT infrastructures of both companies and to discuss the initiatives to be adopted in terms of strategies for information protection and security event management.
