The new GAUDI, evolving for the energy transition

With over two million one hundred thousand production plants — overwhelmingly driven by the unstoppable rise of solar and wind power — the Italian electricity system is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. This in turn has given rise to a series of complexities and new challenges. The numbers illustrate the situation: in 2004, Terna was responsible for the management of around 3,500 production plants. Today, this number is growing by about 15-20 thousand every month, with almost 500,000 new additions in the last two years alone. This unstoppable revolution required a corresponding evolution in GAUDI, the portal for the Single Data Management System for Power Generation Plants (Gestione delle Anagrafiche Uniche Degli Impianti di produzione).
The platform, which began life in 2011, is a database which identifies and monitors all plants on Italian territory which produce electricity. In redesigning the portal, Terna implemented not only a technical update, but an update to technologies and processes, with the goal of improving its efficiency and accessibility for all users operating on GAUDI. Just like the plants, their numbers are growing exponentially. In fact, the path that led to the new GAUDI, which has been online since March 2026, began with these very users in 2023: four in-person meetings dedicated to design thinking with producers, distributors, dispatching users and institutions, with more than 250 operators from 60 companies in the electricity system participating. The output? Listening and talking to stakeholders provided 500 ideas and insights, allowing Terna to identify users’ main needs and the improvements to be made to the data platform. This transparent and innovative approach to co-creation enabled GAUDI’s transformation into a faster, more agile, integrated and accessible tool, with greater clarity on data and information.

Moreover, the portal also manages storage systems: at the end of 2025, these numbered almost 900,000 in Italy, over 150,000 more than in 2024 and practically double the figure from 2023. This confirms the importance of GAUDI as a tool in the energy transition process for the connection of new plants to the national transmission grid, for which Terna is responsible. According to the numbers, this is particularly true for plants relying on renewable sources.

Towards a participatory system: centring users. At the heart of the overhaul of GAUDI is active listening, a strategy which has allowed Terna to accurately map the critical operating requirements of the various players that access the platform every day. Again, the numbers speak plainly: 2 million users, 150,000 monthly interactions, and 9 types of stakeholders dealing with Terna (small and large energy producers and distributors, the GSE-Energy Services Manager and GME-Energy Market Manager-GME, the Single Buyer (Acquirente Unico), the market operators and, finally, the Balance Responsible Parties (BRP) and the Balance Service Providers (BSP).

For distributors, the response has taken the form of a clear shift towards digitisation and management autonomy, simplifying the complex processes of connecting and updating the plants. At the same time, the requests of producers have been satisfied with a more intuitive interface, designed to guide the user through qualifying plants and to automate communications, thus reducing the risk of formal errors. Finally, for dispatching users, Terna has focused on data transparency and flow coordination, introducing digital tools to make plant decommissioning processes smoother.

The result is an integrated ecosystem in which technology no longer provides mere technical support but acts to facilitate dialogue between institutions and the market, an essential part of building the electricity system of the future. It’s worth adding that the real shift in mentality came about as a result of treating the qualification of an electricity plant like the purchase of a product on an e-commerce platform. This approach led to the adoption of Salesforce technology, a leading CRM in the sales sector, which helped transform a bureaucratic, highly regulated procedure into a smoother and more user-centred process. By acting as a market operator which needs to win the satisfaction of its customers, Terna has left behind the solutions of the past to embrace new standards of excellence.

What’s new with GAUDI: technological upgrades, user experience, and functionalities. The new GAUDI portal is the fruit of this long process of sharing with stakeholders, as well as of the upgrades to technologies and processes developed by Terna in recent years. The main innovations include bringing processes into line with the standards of the electricity market and the applicable regulations, enabling greater scalability. In terms of the user experience, the graphic interface and navigation of the portal have been redesigned to make them more intuitive, convenient, and easy to use, making it simpler for people to carry out their activities on the platform. Finally, Terna has introduced a series of ad hoc tools for monitoring and reporting, as well as expanding the standard data model with customised tools.

The Agile method as the new benchmark. The overall revision of operating processes was necessary in part to implement the directives of ARERA (the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment) and of TIDE, the Integrated Text of Electricity Dispatching Rules. GAUDI, therefore, is not merely a platform, but is the first true large-scale experiment with Agile development within one of Terna’s strategic areas. The application of this method as part of the project marks the Group’s shift towards a dynamic management model in which regulatory compliance is no longer a static obligation, but the very driver of innovation. In this scenario, the company has internalised the taxonomy of the Agile model in response to the growing complexity of the energy sector. This approach has made it possible to understand and integrate legislative updates almost in real time, making it in fact a new internal model for how the company will manage future projects.

This methodological transformation has found its fullest expression in the management of TIDE, introduced by ARERA. This text represents a radical reform redesigning the markets in order to accommodate the new targets of the energy transition: the approach taken by Terna has redefined the concept of compliance, thus establishing a new benchmark both internally and further afield.

Promoters of change: the “Angels” of the transition. In order to facilitate such a radical change — one which, as indicated, involves and will involve millions of users — Terna has introduced the new figures of GAUDI Angels: specially trained experts acting as “antennae” to intercept potential as well as problems, and to support and assist users’ interactions with the platform. These “angels” have a special feature: they are not just Terna employees, but also representatives of the distributors, producers, and main operators on the electricity market. This type of public-private collaboration is aimed at operational continuity, guaranteeing that nobody, from small owners of domestic systems to the largest industrial producers, is left behind by progress. Training is one of the key aspects of this change: in fact, Terna has organised 15 webinars on the functionalities of the new GAUDI, involving almost 3,000 internal and external parties in total. In addition to the GAUDI Angels, participants in the training included such stakeholders as producers and distributors, as well as the Balance Responsible Parties (BRP) and Balance Service Providers (BSP).

Stakeholder 360°: the programme revolutionising relationships with users. The new GAUDI is also the first significant step in the Stakeholder 360° programme, an evolutionary process that started precisely by listening to stakeholders. In fact, Terna is revolutionising its management of relations with its counterparties and, with the introduction of a new organisational method, aims to standardise interactions with internal and external users through shared processes and tools. A work group with members ranging across the board, including employees of other partner companies, is working towards a new model for relationships and for the development and implementation of new digital solutions to support it, thanks to a technological upgrade.