The progressive integration of renewable and decentralized energy sources into the electricity system raises new issues, which have been the subject of numerous projects. This report begins by analyzing some data on the evolution of the generation plants installed in Italy: compared to a few years ago, renewable energy plants have increased in terms of installed power and even more in terms of number (there are very many small photovoltaic plants). Moreover, the trend towards the decentralization of the electricity production sector involves not only variable renewable energy production plants, such as photovoltaic and wind power, but also plants using traditional technologies (e.g. biomass plants, combined heat and power plants).

These changes have an impact on grid management mechanisms and require innovations in the organization of the electrical system in order to better manage all the new resources connected. In this context, some innovative proposals for the management of the electrical grid, presented in different projects, have been collected and analyzed. The analysis of these proposals highlights the need to innovate the electrical system towards more automation in the management of the grid and towards a subdivision of the system into smaller control areas, possibly managed automatically, in order to promote further penetration of renewable energy sources.