Italy has become a net exporter of power, according to a statement from Umberto Quadrino, chief executive of Italy’s second-biggest utility, Edison.
New power plants and boosted capacity in older plants have helped to reverse years of the country being an importer of electricity. Italy is currently Europe’s fourth biggest power market, after Germany, France and Britain.
“We have been a net exporting country for three weeks now,” Quadrino told journalists late in November.
According to figures from power grid operator Terna, in 2006 4 000 MW of capacity was added to the Italian national grid, taking domestic generation capacity to 88 449 MW, a boost of 4.7%. Net domestic power output rose 3.7% in 2006 to 301.2 billion kWh, covering 86.7% of national demand.
Italy’s total power demand in 2006 was 337.5 billion kWh, or 10.9% of the European Union’s electricity demand of 3 100 billion kWh, not including Bulgaria and Romania. The country relies on gas for half its power production and relies on imports of the fuel for 85% of its needs. About 70% of those gas imports currently come from Russia and Algeria via pipelines.
Quadrino also said he hopes to conclude a natural gas import contract with Russia gas export monopoly Gazprom by the end of the year.
