In a big week for the grid-scale energy storage market in Italy, regulators have approved new grid storage-specific auction rules and a chunk of Aura Power’s 500MW-plus pipeline of BESS projects.
Tuesday 6 June saw new criteria and conditions for large-scale energy storage capacity in the electricity system approved by the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (Autorità di Regolazione per Energia Reti e Ambiente or ARERA).
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The new market rules will allow grid operator Terna to run large-scale energy storage auctions. Terna will now run a consultation with the industry on the proposed new auction system and the first auctions should take place in late 2023/early 2024, two developers interviewed for a special feature in PV Tech Power (Vol.35) (Premium access) recently told Energy-Storage.news.
The deliberation decision document has not been released but ARERA confirmed the regulation’s approval in this update roundup (in Italian).
In related news, a 200MW project from Italy Grid Storage One s.r.l., controlled by UK developer Aura Power, was also approved by regulators this week.
In a decree the same day as ARERA’s announcement, The Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) approved the system which will be built in the municipality of Maddaloni, in Campania (where Naples is).
A local source told Energy-Storage.news that the project was effectively approved in January making this announcement from MASE something of a pro-forma green lighting.
Aura Power is a UK-based solar and storage developer that is also active across Europe and North America (its UK activity has been covered extensively by our sister site Solar Power Portal).
The company lists four battery storage projects under development in Italy: the 200MW system in Maddaloni, and another 200MW one in nearby Troia, a 100MW unit in Partanna, Sicily, and a smaller 24MW project in Pegognaga in the North.
This week also saw oil and gas major Eni, through its Eni Plenitude business, announce the inauguration of a 15MW BESS in Cagliari which will provide Fast Reserve services to Terna. It was one of the winning projects of a 2020 auction which, along with last year’s surprise capacity market wins, have kickstarted the market in Italy.
