Terna, from 'grid-saving' machines to 'digital eyes': here is the plan to avoid blackouts

A EUR 2.3 billion plan to ensure grid stability and avoid extreme situations such as the blackout that hit Spain in recent days and whose causes are still unknown. This is the path chosen by Terna, the group led by Giuseppina Di Foggia, which manages the electricity grid and has drawn up a precise strategy hinging on increased investments (600 million more than in the previous industrial plan) and a set of rules establishing precise obligations for renewable plants.

This is a series of measures that make Italy unique compared to other countries where, unlike in Italy by virtue of the rules contained in the so-called grid code, operators of green sources cannot be 'touched' except in extraordinary and exceptional cases. In our country, on the other hand, Terna can affect renewables where interventions are justified by the need to ensure grid security and stability. Ergo: it can reduce them, as it did in the past few days, during public holidays, or even teledistrict them without notice if this is necessary to avoid infrastructure problems.

In the plan, which Terna will definitively submit to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security on 31 May, a whole series of measures are planned, starting with voltage and stability regulation machines: These range from Statcoms, very high-performance static machines that serve to dampen fluctuations in the grid, to synchronous compensators, rotating devices that are indispensable for regulating the voltage in the grid, to so-called resistors, which are smaller static machines than Statcoms, capable of absorbing active power (so as to constitute a sort of stabilising load) or reactive power (in fact, as a distributed regulation resource). These are all pieces that contribute to stabilising the network: a sort of 'life-saving' bearings whose presence is crucial to avoid infrastructure setbacks.

Alongside these, Terna's plan also envisages grid reinforcements to enhance the robustness and physical reliability of the grid at critical nodes, as well as resilience measures to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events. The document also contemplates digital infrastructures for the control and defence of the grid (such as, for example, sensors along pylons, real digital 'eyes' that ensure continuous monitoring), as well as physical and logical security measures to protect the infrastructure from any type of threat, including cyber threats.