Will MACSE auction put Italy at the front of battery deployment?

Energy storage insiders who spoke at an event at the NetZero Milan trade show said Italy is preparing to lead the way in large-scale battery use – courtesy of the national MACSE energy storage auction in September – at a time when under-deployment is driving low prices.

Speaking at a discussion jointly organized by pv magazine, Giuseppe Artizzu, CEO of NHOA Energy, said the battery supply chain risks repeating the pattern seen in solar modules: structural overcapacity that should lead to consolidation and sustainable profits for the strongest players — but doesn’t. Instead, the market stays fragmented and unprofitable, raising serious questions about industrial policy.

The boss of the Italian energy storage developer said that raises important questions about industrial policy.

Domingo Zhu, senior sales director at Chinese battery company BYD, agreed with Artizzu prices will continue to drop, although only marginally.

Artizzu predicted battery deployment will advance sufficiently to cover all of Italy’s grid needs, including maintaining network frequency and voltage regulation and providing virtual inertia and short-circuit currents.

MACSE focus

Roberto Massarenti, head of infrastructure finance at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, spoke at the part of the event organized by Green Horse Advisory. He warned September’s MACSE auction would either exclude some battery projects or, if all sites were approved, would do so “at less attractive prices.”

While banks could offer financial instruments to help fund Macse auction projects, their ability to manage sites is limited so a screening of applications will have to take place. Consultants and banks have already said they believe MACSE projects will generate some of their revenue on a non-subsidized, “merchant” basis.

On Friday’s closing day of the three-day Milan summit, Italian grid operator Terna reminded attendees requests for admission of projects to the auction must be lodged by June 3. Sites must be qualified on the MACSE portal by July 17, and their pre-auction financial guarantees must be uploaded to the portal by Aug. 21. The auction will be held on Sep. 30 and successful projects will be expected to be operational from January 2028.

“The timing for the MACSE is designed to give operators as much time as possible to obtain authorization,” said Luca Marchisio, head of system strategy at Terna.

Several operators have confirmed competition to enter the MACSE auction will be fierce with the procurement exercise set to be oversubscribed, possibly by as much as four times the permitted project capacity.

From pv magazine Italia.