The national electricity system is made up of several segments: production, transmission, distribution and the sale of electricity. Tasked with transmission and dispatching, Terna is responsible for the key transmission segment. This is a complex task, requiring an independent central coordinator capable of having an overall view of a high number of actors involved in both production and consumption.

In this scenario, Terna is driving the complex transition towards a new carbon-free model, aware of the fact that the task of meeting ambitious national and international targets over the coming years must be addressed by taking into account not only the environmental aspects, but also the social dimension, in order to deliver a just transition that is as fair and inclusive as possible. In this sense, it is of fundamental importance to involve all the players affected by the transition (including, for example, trade bodies, civil society and the authorities), through partnerships, public debate and engagement initiatives.

To be truly just, this transformation process must embrace not only energy-related and digital aspects, but also social considerations. This means achieving energy equality, under an approach that has the human dimension at its heart with a view to reducing inequalities and avoiding new forms of energy poverty. With this in mind, for the first time in the Group’s history the 2024-2028 Sustainability Plan is fully integrated into the Industrial Plan presented in March 2024. Sustainability is inherent in Terna’s very nature, precisely because of its crucial role in bringing about the energy transition (“Green by Nature”). But what most qualifies the Group as sustainable is the way it chooses to carry out its business (“Social by Purpose”). In order to pursue an inclusive transition, in support of this approach, one of the main new developments of the Sustainability Plan is the establishment of the Terna Foundation, which took place on 30 July 2024, which was followed on 26 September by its registration in the Register of Legal Persons. The foundation became operational in January 2025.

In managing the transmission grid and the system, new technologies and digitalisation thus play and will continue to play an ever more important role in enabling the energy transition. This will benefit the electricity system as a whole and further boost the security, resilience and flexibility of Italy’s transmission infrastructure, supporting progressive decarbonisation and the growing integration of renewables.

The transition to a distributed production system based on green sources is, therefore, rapidly altering the electricity system, resulting in exponential growth in active resources connected to the grid. Managing requests for connection to the HV grid, coming from entities proposing renewable initiatives, enables Terna to have a systematic view of the current situation and future scenarios. As Transmission System Operator (TSO), Terna can monitor the system’s ability to meet demand for electricity whilst satisfying security and quality of service requirements: in a word, ensuring the system’s adequacy.

The actions included in Terna’s 2025 Development Plan for the national transmission grid will make a significant contribution to achieving the targets set at European level in the Fit for 55 package of measures, by RepowerEU and in Italy by the 2024 National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) which aims to cut CO₂ emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. In Italy, energy from renewable sources will have to cover at least 65% of final consumption in the electricity sector by 2030 for a total of more than 70 GW of additional power (wind and solar) compared to 2021 (about 65 GW compared to 2023). These greenhouse gas emission reduction targets have recently been joined by the need to become independent of fossil fuels from Russia, as described in the REPowerEU² plan.

Market operators are responding to the challenge with major investment programmes: the level of renewable plant development projects being put forward by private investors is extremely encouraging. As at 31 December 2024 Terna received requests for connection to the National Transmission Grid (NTG) for over 348 GW of new renewable capacity, of which 43.6% related to solar and 56.3% to wind (onshore and offshore). It is possible to continuously monitor these initiatives through the new digital platform called Econnextion³, launched by Terna in 2023 in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security. The platform provides centralised information on requests for the connection of renewable energy sources to the HV grid in Italy. This dashboard has been enriched with additional data on all green sources and also with information on storage systems. An important new tool for the benefit of sector operators, with which Terna shares information on the regional and local distribution of renewable connection requests broken down by sources (solar, onshore wind, offshore wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass) and storage systems (pure pumping, mixed pumping, standalone storage, integrated storage on solar plant, integrated storage on wind plant).

The data on applications for the connection of new renewable energy plants to the electricity grid reveal that we are one right track: it would be sufficient to complete 20% of the currently proposed initiatives to reach the targets set. According to Terna’s findings – considering all renewable sources – the capacity increase in Italy was about 7.5 GW, which is about 1.7 GW higher than in 2023 (+29%). This points to an acceleration in the development of renewables, with new activations rising from 1 GW in 2021, approximately 3 GW in 2022 to around 5.8 GW in 2023. As at 31 December 2024, Italy had 76.6 GW of installed power from renewable sources, broken down by source as follows: solar 37.1 GW, hydro renewable 21.56 GW, wind 13 GW, biomass 3.97 GW and geothermal 0.95 GW⁴. In addition, according to the latest figures from Terna at 31 December 2024, 8 GW qualified for the Detailed Minimum Technical Solution as part of the process for connection to the national grid⁵.

Differences in the geographical distribution and technology mix compared with earlier forecasts make this a very tough challenge: from the point of view of transmission, to achieve this fresh injection of renewable energy into the grid will require a major effort to plan, approve and carry out investment projects on a scale not seen in recent decades in Italy. In the 2025 Development Plan Terna presented an investment programme of more than €23 billion for the period 2025-2034, with a total value beyond the 10-year horizon of up to about €40 billion. Actions are planned over the ten-year horizon 2025-2034 to ensure the efficiency and the resilience of the grid, the sustainability, the security and the quality of the service, as well as the integration of production from renewable sources. Also at the centre of the 2025 Development Plan is the efficient regional planning of the country’s energy infrastructure as a new model to ensure efficiency in the realisation of grid works enabling the connection and integration of new resources, minimising costs for the system, as well as the impact of infrastructure on the local regions. Furthermore, a total reduction in CO₂ emissions of almost 2,000 kt/year is expected by 2030, which in the long term (by 2040) will tend to almost 12,100 kt/year.

The definitive text of the PNIEC for 2024 confirms the decarbonisation targets for the electricity system and the related steps needed, as set out in Terna’s 2024 Scenario Description Document and in the Development Plans: to integrate growing volumes of non-programmable renewable energy production to replace generation using fossil fuels, it will be necessary to develop storage capacity and grid infrastructure, to be managed using increasingly digital and smart systems.

The energy transition path requires a common commitment at the national level to achieve the challenging decarbonisation objectives set out in Italy by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan: to this end, the Energy Decree entrusted Terna with the task of creating a new digital portal. The TE.R.R.A. digital platform was launched online on 7 June 2024, developed by Terna to enable and promote efficient regional planning of the country’s energy infrastructure, available to national and local administrators, legislators, and proposing parties to consult strategic and relevant information on Territory, Networks, Renewables, and Storage. A cutting-edge institutional communication tool, designed to facilitate the full transparency of data and information, to encourage action for the rationalisation and optimisation of electrical infrastructure planning and, finally, to support the stakeholders involved through regular monitoring and progress reports from Terna on the grid and the electricity system. The platform contains a huge wealth of information on the status of connection requests (around 8,000 renewable plants, storage systems and consumer users with a connection solution accepted by the proposers), and on the geographical location of more than 43,000 VHV/HV and MV plants in operation, confirming constant work on data quality and the digitalisation of processes and systems. It is possible to navigate multilayer maps to observe necessary development work, planned development work and existing power lines, the registry of plants already in operation and the progress of new connection initiatives.

Terna has, and will increasingly have, a key role to play in enabling the electricity system’s transition towards renewable sources and in centrally coordinating this major energy and digital transformation. The electricity grid is in fact the main enabling factor in achieving the global goal of decarbonisation.

What does this mean? Achieving the ambitious European and international goals will obviously require the participation of all members of society, but the energy sector must take the lead, given that it is by a long way the biggest producer of emissions at global level.

Under the European Green Deal, the net zero emissions target is to be achieved in two main ways: by increasing use of renewables and through growing electrification of consumption. In this sense, an essential role in all the various scenarios designed to arrive at carbon neutrality is played by the key tool of energy efficiency.

Introducing the “energy efficiency first” principle, the European Commission invited member states to take energy efficiency into account in all their policy, planning and investment decisions. In this way, in keeping with the EU’s long-term strategy, final energy consumption in Europe is expected to fall by (at least) 35% by 2050 compared with 2019 levels.

The key consideration, in this sense, is represented by the fact that electricity will be the main energy carrier and the electricity grid will operate as the backbone for decarbonisation for all the other energy sectors. This reflects the carrier’s intrinsic efficiency and the technological maturity of renewable energy sources (RES).

In its role as national electricity system operator, at the end of 2023, Terna launched a new corporate advertising campaign, “Let’s think about the future of energy”, inviting the public to reflect on the energy that plays such an important role in the daily life of every Italian. March 2024 saw the launch of Terna’s new corporate institutional campaign “We’ve made a commitment to the future of energy’’ in the media to accompany the provisions of the new 2024-2028 Industrial Plan. In fact, the creative work of the campaign informed the public of the four strengths of the Plan: the highest investments ever; Sustainability, for the first time integrated in the Industrial Plan; Digitalisation to innovate the grid; Solidarity, for a fair transition for all.

Climate targets also play a key role in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, not only because SDG 13 - Climate Action focuses explicitly on the climate, but above all because dealing with the climate crisis and guaranteeing, therefore, a healthier planet for the future, is key to enabling the world to achieve all the other goals contained in the Agenda. This means delivering truly prosperous, long-lasting development as part of a just transition.

Awareness of the Company’s key role in the current transition coincides with Terna’s wish to further strengthen its environmental strategy. Adoption of a Science Based Target (SBT) with the aim of cutting its CO₂ emissions based on measurement of the existing situation and the planning of concrete actions, validated by a third-party entity, turns a good intention into a real, tangible contribution to containing the rise in the global temperature, in line with the Paris Climate Accords of 2015. Terna has thus committed to cutting its CO₂ emissions by 46% by 2030 compared with 2019, improving on the earlier target of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 30%. In addition, with the aim of positioning Terna among the companies most committed to the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity at global level, Terna has begun the preliminary activities involved in adopting a new Science Based Target for Nature.