Italy approves 10 GWh quota for first MACSE storage auction

The Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security has approved the volume of future energy storage capacity which Italian grid operator Terna has suggested is necessary to keep the lights by the publication of decree no. 53, of Feb. 27.

Terna calculated Italy will need 10 GWh of energy storage capacity to maintain reliable grid electricity supply in 2028. That figure, or slightly less, will be the amount available to developers who participate in the country’s first energy storage capacity auction, known as the mercato a termine degli stoccaggi, or MACSE.

The table produced by Terna, above, shows where the grid operator believes the energy storage project capacity can be located.

It indicates Terna believes Sicily and Sardinia must each have at least 500 MWh of energy storage capacity and reveals the grid operator sees the potential for up to 7 GWh of storage in the “Calabria and South” section of Terna’s grid.

To identify the need for energy storage, Terna added up EUR 8,000 ($8,360)/MWh/year benefits for the facilities which offer to strengthen the grid, to the savings which would be made by removing the need to over-generate electricity from combined-cycle natural gas power plants. With that latter cost variable, the EUR 8,000 annual figure was based on Terna’s estimates of grid benefits likely to be offered in 2028 by energy storage sites with four-hour storage capacity.

The sum of the avoided gas plant and grid-benefit numbers was compared to a EUR 43,000/MWh annual cost of installing energy storage figure used by Terna. Modeling of various levels of energy storage capacity, by grid region, enabled Terna to identify the optimal storage capacity required in each section of its national network.

With Terna having indicated the MACSE auction is likely to be delayed until September, a national quota for energy storage is set to be published 20 days earlier. The volume of storage capacity available in the auction may be reduced to take into account projects which have come online nationally, including via conventional grid capacity auctions, up to publication of the quota figures.

From pv magazine Italia.