The evolution of the Italian power system in 2030 to support more than 55% of renewables on electricity consumption

On 31 December 2018, the draft of National Energy Climate Plan (NECP) was sent by the Italian Government to the European Commission. In the NECP, electricity production from RES reaches a share, in 2030, more than 55% of the gross domestic consumption of electricity (GDC-E). In this paper we present the impact assessment of the achievement of such target on the development and on the operation of the power system with a focus on the need of new storage infrastructures. The analysis started from an energy scenario developed with a TIMES based energy model. Then, using a mid-term power system simulator (sMTSIM by RSE), the main criticalities (congestion, overgeneration, energy not supplied, etc.) have been identified and quantified. The technical and regulatory measures to mitigate the impact of such critical issues, have been evaluated based on a cost/benefit analysis. Finally, the amount of investments needed have been estimated.