The document summarizes a specific aspect addressed across various research activities developed during Project 2.1, i.e. the relationship between development scenarios of distributed generation and electrification of end uses, and the need to update the distribution network, with the aim to propose a key to understanding the possible regulatory implications.
In the coming years the Italian electricity system will see a further acceleration of the processes of decentralization of generation and end-use electrification: for this reason, it is interesting to address the issue of how regulation – i.e. fees and tariffs paid by network users – can direct developments towards more efficient configurations in term of costs of renewal and development of the distribution network.
In the abstract, a locational signal, linked solely to regulated components applied to different categories of network users, could affect the following elements, discussed in the first part of the document:
• connection fees,
• fees for the transmission and distribution service (network charges),
• coefficients for calculating the cost of network losses.
Subsequently, in order to evaluate how much the different territorial distribution affects network developments, the methodologies developed by RSE to estimate the costs of adapting distribution networks and the results in different scenarios of distributed generation (DG) and load allocation are summarized.
Finally, possible changes to the regulatory framework are discussed in order to introduce locational signals for new distributed generation plants and for the electrification of end uses and the role that local flexibility services may have.