Over the past decade, new EU and Italian energy policies have brought about substantial changes in the market and, above all, in the national electrical system, which have led to the emergence of new critical issues and needs. Under the impetus of technical, economic, environmental and social drivers, the electrical system has taken on a completely different layout, characterized by increasing grid integration of generation from non-programmable renewable sources and more distributed generation, rather than a few large-scale plants.

The transformation is also underway in European electricity markets with the goal of achieving a single Internal Electricity Market (IEM): this process, currently at an advanced stage with respect to the coupling of the day-ahead markets, is expected to extend to intraday markets and balancing and dispatching services markets in the coming years.

In the System Research project ‘Evolution of Interconnected Electricity Systems and Market Integration,’ activities were carried out concerning electricity markets analysis, focusing both on current critical issues and on the possible medium- and long-term evolution of the system, its management and the regulatory framework that governs its operation. Of particular relevance, in this context, is RSE’s participation, alongside the Authority (AEEGSI, the Italian Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water System), in the RDE (Electric Dispatch Reform) project to reform the market for dispatching services.

Notably, a theoretical analysis of three possible models that could be implemented to reform the regulation of actual imbalances was conducted. In addition, an analysis of the competitiveness of combined cycles under current electricity market conditions was carried out, as well as a simulation to assess future needs for the provision of dispatching services in a 2030 scenario. Analyses on possible market evolution and integrations were conducted, in the context of the European eBADGE project, starting with the development of a cross-border balancing market simulator involving Italy, Austria and Slovenia.

Part of the activities was aimed at the development of simulators and other software tools, such as the service market simulator and a tool for assessing tertiary reserve requirements in the presence of more Dispatch Services Market (DSM) sessions than in the current situation.

Finally, still in the context of possible developments in electricity markets, studies have been carried out to assess the contribution to primary regulation service from thermal loads, depending on the availability of the appropriately quantified resource, and a primary control logic has been proposed for wind generation.