Terna, new works worth EUR 800 million to be commissioned in 2025

Terna is accelerating the commissioning of new electrical works at the service of the energy transition: by the end of the year, the group led by Giuseppina Di Foggia is, in fact, ready to 'switch on' about 800 million in development infrastructure (+60% on the year before). A figure that exceeds 2 billion if we consider the balance of interventions consigned to full operation from 2023 and crucial for strengthening the security and resilience of the national transmission network, a strategic junction for the path that Italy has set out to shore up its energy mix. The sprint on the front of the definitive start-up of the works was also accompanied by a change of pace on the authorisation front: throughout the year, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security and the relevant regional councillors gave the go-ahead to 36 new interventions of the group distributed along the entire peninsula (compared to 25 in 2024), for a billion euro of investments grounded on the whole.

"Terna's works that have come into operation from 2023 to date, amounting to over two billion euros in investments, make energy transmission safer and the grid more flexible," explains the group's managing director, Giuseppina Di Foggia, who emphasises some of the 'clou' pieces, from the submarine connection with the Island of Elba to the strengthening of the Sicilian electricity grid to the new interconnections with Austria and France. "These are sustainable infrastructures that strengthen the grid and allow for the integration of new renewable energy," says the top manager, who also takes stock of the three-year period on the authorisation front. "In the same period," adds the ceo, who has led Terna since May 2023, "more than 80 projects were authorised, for a record value of more than six billion euro. The main works are already underway: large infrastructures that unite the country and increase the efficiency of the grid, making it capable of better managing peaks in demand and transporting energy from the generation points to the areas with the highest consumption".

In short, the group brings home a result that, in the words of its number one, 'is confirmation of our ability to execute'. Certified also by the numbers of the works realised: during the year, in fact, more than 300 kilometres of electrical connections were completed, designed with an eye on the choice of solutions with reduced environmental impact. Among the main works are those for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, with more than 130 kilometres of underground and, therefore, completely 'invisible' power lines between Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Veneto to ensure a more robust and reliable grid and completed by the group in the past few years. In Sicily, the 380-kilovolt Paternò-Pantano-Priolo power line was also completed. This is a key infrastructure for the regional electricity system, as it strengthens the network to increase the continuity and reliability of the electricity supply in the eastern area of Sicily, between the provinces of Catania and Syracuse.

In addition to these, as the Di Foggia ceo also recalls, there are, if we go back to 2023, other strategic projects such as the interconnection in underground cable between Italy and France - 190 kilometres, of which 90 kilometres in Italy, between the Piossasco power station in the province of Turin and the Grand-Île power station on the other side, which cross the Alps through the Frejus tunnel - and that between Italy and Austria (28 kilometres, in completely underground cable, winding between Val Venosta and Nauders): two connections aimed at increasing the exchange capacity and strengthening the stability of the energy system in the Alpine regions.

As for the authorisation front, in the set of works also mentioned by Di Foggia, there are a whole series of pieces, the most important of which are submarine links, such as the western branch of the Tyrrhenian Link, the double cable that will connect Sicily to Sardinia and the Italian peninsula, or the Adriatic Link that will 'unite' the Marche and Abruzzo from an electrical point of view.