#EnergyofThings arrives with Equigy

From the Internet of Things to Energy of Things, through blockchain technology. Terna is focusing on technology to improve balancing of electricity supply and demand on the national transmission grid. This initiative condenses the two aspects into a single word: Equigy, a digital platform supporting the electricity transition, created by Terna with the German/Dutch company TenneT and the Swiss operator SwissGrid. Signing of the joint venture agreement, defined over recent months, took place at the end of December.

Does it all sound a little mysterious? Let's break it down by imagining a large motorway with hundreds of thousands of secondary roads leading off, some wider and others really narrow, spreading out across the country. The motorway represents the transmission grid managed by Terna that transports high- and extra-high-voltage electricity. The other roads are electricity generation plants: these were once all large power stations, but today there is a myriad of smaller plants, often domestic systems. Electricity flows in multiple directions and a perfect balance must be maintained between offer, conditioned by the non-programmable nature of renewables, and demand, which is also fluctuating, driven by the growing electrification of consumption (electric vehicles, heat pumps and air-conditioning systems). In this context, even electric cars and their batteries connected to the grid can play a useful role and contribute to balancing the system when renewable generation drops suddenly, due to bad weather for example.

Technically speaking, Equigy is a "crowd-balancing platform" (CBP), i.e. a grid-balancing platform that operates on the basis of collaboration between transmission system operators (TSO), stakeholders of the generation and supply chain and small consumers, connecting distributed resources such as e-cars and residential storage units to provide dispatching services, for issue of energy into the grid. The aggregators include distributors of electricity, and the digital tools (this is where the IoT comes in) to monitor development of demand include smart meters and cutting-edge vehicle charging stations.

Water heaters, photovoltaic systems and many other day-to-day objects are treated as a single, large consumer. “Domestic and industrial electric devices connected and controlled remotely through an innovative digital platform supporting the grid managed by Terna will be managed as if they were a single source of consumption, with the possibility for the electricity operator to regulate demand" explains Luca Marchisio, Terna's Head of Strategy. "This is a huge opportunity as generation of electricity from renewables begins to take over."

The need for a tool like Equigy arises from the need to optimise management of the current process of energy transition and to offer a platform bringing together all of the different protagonists of the electricity system to ensure that supply and demand are constantly balanced, secure and sustainable. All of this must be done with an economic return that allows players to increase revenue deriving from the provision of grid services. Significant savings are possible: € 300 million annually, combined with 400 MegaWatt of additional transport capacity, according to estimates of the transmission grid operator.

"These actions...", added Francesco Del Pizzo, Terna's Head of Grid Development Strategies and Dispatching, "allow us to bring forward the benefits connected to works set out in our Development Plan to increase transit capacity. This change in pace has been assessed, engineered and implemented by the current management in just seven months from taking office and will have important effects for the system, for end users and for producers of energy from alternative sources".

Everything begins with an initial pilot phase but the future of Equigy is to become increasingly internationalised and open up to other TSOs, aggregators and consumers. The platform has a neutral status: "The system is not exclusive and aggregators can decide whether or not to make use of the services offered by the platform" emphasised Terna, which wishes to strengthen its central role as director of the energy transition and facilitator of the new Italian energy system, "able to assist the country in achieving national NECP (Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan) and European zero-emissions goals for 2050, as stated in a press release from the Group. It is important to remember that the 2025 Industrial Plan sets out investment of around € 900 million in digitalisation and innovation, from a total of €8.9 billion.