Comprehensive overview of the production of electricity in Italy: installed capacity, demand and consumption
In Italy the production of electricity occurs largely through the use of non-renewable resources (such as coal, oil and natural gas) and to a lesser extent from renewable sources (such as the exploitation of geothermal energy, energy hydroelectric and wind power), and the remaining amount is covered by the purchase of energy from abroad, carried into the country through the use of power lines.
Italy, as the physical system including its national headquarters and its pumping stations, fuel consumption in 2009 was about 337,601 GWh of electricity. This represents the so-called "consumption or gross domestic needs" and indicates the electricity it needs the country to operate any equipment or vehicle that is in need of electricity. This figure is calculated as the sum of the values at the terminals of the electrical generators of each individual production facility and the balance of trade with foreign countries. The measurement is obtained before a possible deduction of energy to power the pumping stations and not considering self-consumption of power (ie energy that the plant uses for its operation). The data of gross national energy consumption contains a percentage equal to 13.3% of energy imported from abroad (ie, net exports of the minimal, approximately 44,959 GWh per year in 2009), which accounts for 14.1% of the value of 'electricity demands.
Brief history of energy production in Italy since 1950. Processing from data published by Terna
Excluding these "cost imposed" (ancillary services, losses in the transformer station and electricity to store energy during the night through the water pumping stations), you have a "net national consumption" or "domestic demand for energy power, "which in 2009 was 320,268 GWh, a decrease of 5.66% over the previous year (the biggest drop since 1949, mainly due to the reduction in industrial consumption due to the economic crisis of 2008 - 2010) but with an average increase of 1.81% over the last twenty years. This value also includes the network losses, calculated at around 20 353 GWh. The remaining part (299 915 GWh) represents the energy consumption of end users.
As for the power required, Italy needs an average of about 38.5 GW of gross electric power instantaneous (36.4 GW of net electrical power instantaneous power). These values fluctuate between night and day on average from 22 to 50 GW, with peaks minimum and maximum respectively of 18.8 and 51.8 GW. These values, however due to the reduction of energy demand observed in 2008 and (mostly) 2009 due to the aforementioned international economic crisis, with peak power demand has in fact had in 2007 with a peak of 56.82 GW.
The gross national electricity demand was covered in 2009 to 67.3% primarily through thermal power plants that burn fossil fuels largely imported from abroad (of which a small percentage - less than 2% - refer to biomass, waste industrial or civil and domestic fuel). Another 19.6% is obtained from renewable sources (hydro, geothermal, wind and solar) for a total electricity production of approximately 292,641 gross national GWh per year (2009). The remaining portion to cover the needs gross national income (337,601 GWh) is imported from abroad in the aforementioned percentage of 13.3%.
Regarding the installed capacity (ie the maximum power supplied by power plants), Italy is technically self-sufficient existing power plants through 2009 are in fact capable of delivering a maximum net power of about 101 GW against a historical maximum demand about 56.8 GW (peak of summer 2007) in the hottest summer. According to data from 2009, this theoretical maximum is thus not been fully exploited and the average power available peak was estimated to 67 GW. The difference between the theoretical maximum power and the estimate of the average power available is in part due to several technical factors and / or seasonal (among them there is no fault, repowering or maintenance periods, as well as hydrogeological factors for hydropower or estimates on 'randomness of the source for the wind, but also the delay in the updating of statistics on power), while in part is due to the fact that some plants (especially thermoelectric) are held firm "long-term" in that, as said with plants in operation is already able to cover the demand. Self-reliance is, however, derived from a purely numerical extrapolation, so it's a given theory. It should be noted that, according to Terna definition, the average power available at the tip (since partially estimated) is the power that was delivered on average generation plants to cope with daily peaks of the winter period. This implies that such power can be produced for a limited period of time, so it is not necessarily enough to cover the entire annual requirement Italian.
Despite these contingencies and / or seasonal, there is an overabundance of plants, already grown by 28.8% between 2002 and 2008: Terna provides that the maximum load in the case of "hot summer" in 2019 will be equal 72 GW in a scenario called "development", that is, in terms of higher consumption and less saving and energy efficiency.
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Translated via software
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Source:
Italian version of ReteIngegneri.it