Diana Moneta*, Giuseppe Mauri*, Carlo Bettoni*, Roberto Meda* CIRED 2007-19th International Conference and Exhibition on ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION Vienna, 21-24 Maggio 2007 * CESI RICERCA The Italian Electric Sector has been undergoing considerable changes: EU Directive on electricity (2004/54/EC, ex 96/92/EC) has established common rules for creation of internal markets and required privatisation of Italy’s dominant energy monopolies. From 2007 all EU domestic customers will have the right to choose energy suppliers; this will involve a change from a passive role to active participant. Final users participation to the market will be substantially represented by the ability of modulating their own load profile as result of market signal (price) or network signal (emergency). This requires the provision of a platform that performs several functionalities: communication with distributor/retailer, interaction with user, load management, energy storage and management of distributed micro-generators. This paper describe CESI RICERCA’s facility devoted to develop and test the above mentioned functionalities.