Far from being only a mere technological challenge, the twin energy and digital transition is a deep social and cultural change, requiring targeted investment, new skills, and effective communication strategies. In this interview with Francesco Pilo - Professor at the University of Cagliari, and Director of the Master’s Program on the Digitalisation of the Electricity System for the Energy Transition, held at the Tyrrhenian Lab in Cagliari, in partnership with Terna - provides a detailed overview on the main topics and solutions, and focuses on the need for a far-reaching approach encompassing technological, financial and social aspects.
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Twin Transition. Doubling down on Talent. Interview with Fabrizio Pilo
12/11/2025
14 minutes
The Director of the Master’s Programme in “Digitalisation of the Electricity System for the Energy Transition”, held at Terna’s Tyrrhenian Lab in Cagliari, explained how the country’s energy future inevitably passes through decarbonisation, digitalisation and upskilling processes.
Professor, you have extensive experience in the field of electric engineering, and a deep knowledge of Sardinia’s energy-related dynamics. What technological challenges are in store for the island, in the near future?
«Sardinia’s case is emblematic, as it gives centre stage to the inherent contradictions and potential of the national energy system. It is one of the Italian regions more affected by the transition, and also one with the greater quantity of natural resources to tackle it. The island currently generates 75% of electricity from fossil sources and coal. This kind of system has substantial effects on the environment, all the more so if we consider the additional impact caused by air and sea transport - unavoidable on an island - and the biggest refinery of the Mediterranean region located in its territory.
Gradually replacing coal-fired power plants, without compromising the safety of the regional energy system, is not just a technical matter. It is the challenge of balancing out environmental needs, grid reliability, and financial sustainability. Nevertheless, Sardinia has all the means to overcome this challenge, such as plenty of renewable resources - sun, wind, greenfields - and a sufficiently broad local fabric to promote the orderly and consistent development of new electrical capacity. Reliable research on this topic foresees a completely renewable energy system, based on over 7GW of installed power and the electrification of consumption, could be achieved with less than 1% regional land use. Through a model combining decarbonisation, energy independence, financial benefits, and development.
However, the real challenge does not lie in the figures or in technological limitations. It lies in social bias. The growing opposition to new renewable systems, often perceived as an outsiders’ imposition, shows a lack of communication and trust. This is where the real transition begins, in the ability to reach an informed consensus, to promote direct engagement tools, such as Renewable Energy Communities, and reserve a new role for citizens within the new energy system. This is how Sardinia becomes a lab, and also a testing ground. To prove that a fair transition is possible, we need to connect infrastructure and rights, production and acceptability, efficiency and participation.»
What do you believe to be the strategies and investments necessary to unlock Southern Italy’s potential to enhance local competencies, especially when it comes to the energy and digital transition?
«The energy transition in Southern Italy poses a two-fold challenge. On one side, infrastructure-wise, the grid needs adaptation to integrate a large quantity of energy generated by non-programmable renewable sources, to exploit the territorial vocation of southern regions. On the other side, we need to enhance the human capital, which is still much undervalued, despite a relevant educational and professional potential.
Southern Italy’s geography and climate is indeed a strategic advantage. Wind, sun, available land and, in some areas, a low population density, are all ideal conditions to expand renewable sources. However, these resources need to be linked, managed and optimised. Investing in electrical interconnections – and in direct current in particular - is not an optional engineering solution, but rather an indispensable step to ensure the flexibility such an increasingly widespread system, based on non-programmable resources, needs.
In addition to a physical expansion of the grid, we urgently need to develop advanced system management and control skills. Apart from transporting energy, modern grids are complex digital environments that integrate millions of data in real time, monitor operating conditions, and foresee load and generation dynamics, all the while being resilient and reliable. All connected units - generators, storage systems, flexible loads - should be constantly linked to the grid and to one another, in a technical ecosystem requiring new competencies.
In this context, the human capital becomes the most crucial resource. Hyper-specialised professionals siloed in their respective fields are no longer enough. We need figures capable of understanding the entire system, working in different fields, and combining engineering, digital, mathematical and financial knowledge. Digitalisation has a multiplier effect. It helps us generate a high impact with limited resources, provided that we have the right people in the right place.
In this respect, Southern Italy is still a largely untapped ground. Despite thousands of graduates with solid scientific competences being trained every year by Universities in Southern Italy, they are often compelled to look for career opportunities elsewhere. However, with the expansion of the strategic role of renewable sources in Southern Italy, this situation is evolving. It is not just a matter of harnessing talent, it is a matter of creating an educational and professional offer on par with the new challenges, which can leverage technological transformation to generate long-lasting, local, qualified development.»
One of the goals of the Tyrrhenian Lab project is training highly-specialised professionals. Now that the Master’s programme has reached its 4th edition, how has the relationship between academia and Terna evolved to broaden the Master’s participants competencies, in line with the electricity system transformation?
«The need for integrated education has been addressed by Tyrrhenian Lab, an initiative promoted by Terna in partnership with the Universities of Cagliari, Palermo and Salerno. Focus of the project is the Master in Digitalisation of the Electricity System for the Energy Transition, a cutting-edge experimental alliance between academia and industry.
It all began by observing a structural issue: the lack of professionals with the technical and digital skills required to drive the transition of the electricity system in Italy. The energy sector has been perceived as unappealing by the younger generations - often captured by more dynamic or innovative fields - for far too long. When in truth the current electricity system is actually one of the main fields of application for new technologies, from state-of-the-art sensors to artificial intelligence, from cyber-security to predictive inspection systems.
The Master’s programme does not target electrical engineers in the broadest sense, nor wishes to convert other specialists to a single calling. Its goal is creating a new multidisciplinary professional figure, who can understand the complexity of the electricity system, and work in an environment where the boundaries between data, energy and operational decisions are thinning out. The programme is open to many different profiles, such as mathematicians, physicists, data scientists, and computer, mechanical and electronic engineers. They are provided with an overview of how the system works, and specific training on the tools required to manage it, in the new digital context.
One of the most interesting features of this Master’s programme is the actual integration between academic education and the industry. Almost 40% of lectures are held by field professionals, technicians and experts employed in system companies and entities. This goes to ensure that the content is always up-to-date, and directly connected to the actual operational needs. This way, education expands its purpose of a theory-learning hub, by extending its branches toward the actual work, design and responsibilities.»
«The Tyrrhenian Lab is a replicable model, an example of how companies, universities and territories can come together to generate public value, develop competencies and have a direct impact on the way our Country is transformed.»
In your opinion, what technologies are necessary to digitise the electricity system, and how are they essential to ensure the stability and efficiency of the transmission grid?
«Digitising the electricity system is not just about modernizing the existing infrastructure. It is a structural transformation that will change the way we produce, transmit, distribute, consume and regulate energy. In a system that is becoming increasingly de-centralised, where renewable sources are scattered throughout the territory, intermittent by nature, and often provided by multiple parties, relying on rigid or centralised operational rationales is no longer a possibility.
We need a smart, interconnected, flexible and predictive electricity grid to manage this scenario. The first pillar in this evolution is building a widespread, reliable, low-latency communication network, to transmit the information necessary to the system’s operation in real time. High-voltage transmission grids have already been widely digitised. Now we should focus our investments on the distribution grid - closer to citizens, enterprises and new prosumers.
This should be followed by advanced sensors, distributed throughout the territory and built into grid components. New-generation sensors and IoT devices can detect the systems physical conditions, conductors temperature, environmental circumstances, and micro frequency and voltage variations in real time. However, collecting data is not enough. The real leap forward quality-wise will be achieved when such data become useful information that can be translated into operational decisions. We need a cutting-edge software platform that can analyse the growing volumes of data in real time, recognise patterns, anticipate faults, and optimise flows.
The transition toward renewable sources requires another structural asset, by providing stability to a system that, due to its nature, loses a large portion of the inertia historically provided by thermoelectric power stations. We need to invest in differently-scaled storage systems - including centralised and widespread models - to bridge this gap, and also introduce synthetic inertia devices that can digitally replicate the grid’s physical behaviour in dynamic conditions.
Another open front is cybersecurity. When the grid is more open and interconnected, it is also inevitably more exposed. Isolation is no longer a viable sustainable nor effective security measure. We need to build a resilient digital architecture that can prevent and manage cyber attacks, and protect system data and critical functions.
In conclusion, digitalisation cannot be summed up in a single action nor a technical update. It is a complex technological ecosystem - communication, sensors, analysis software, storage systems, cybersecurity - that works together in an integrated and coordinated manner to equip the electricity system to face the challenge of climate transition, electrification, demand growth, and operational security.»