THE BERSANI DECREE: TWENTY YEARS LATER

20 years constitute a good amount of time to look back and reflect, with perspective, on our past choices and their consequences in the present.

For this reason, 20 years after the entry into force of Italian Legislative Decree no. 79 of 16 March 1999, (informally called the Bersani Decree in honour of the then Minister of Industry, Pierluigi Bersani), we can take the time to reflect about what has changed for Italy.

The Bersani Decree represented a turning point in the Italian energy market: the result of European ratings in favour of the liberalisation of the competition between service operators and the opening up of the free market, bearing in mind the aim of consumer satisfactionthanks to the diversification of choice and the best conditions for supply.

In Italy’s history, the supply of electricity and related processes such as production, transmission, dispatching and distribution were concentrated under the Ente Nazionale per l'Energia Elettrica, or Enel, a state body since 1962. There was no choice for the consumer, apart from a few remote cities where the energy was supplied by the municipal electricity company. The usual state of complete monopoly.

The Bersani Decree demolished this monopoly and separated the different phases of the energy cycle into different structures. Now, there are more than 4,500 companies (excluding small independent producers, represented by thousands of solar panels installed throughout the country) in energy production, with an additional 470 sales companies. Enel is still the leading energy producer, but now holds 20.5% of production, followed by players such as Eni and Edison.

Meanwhile, a national regulatory body has been established to avoid commercial abuse or unfair competition by private operators. The task of controlling and monitoring the electricity market is therefore carried out by the energy authority Arera, with the Energy Services Manager dealing with the planning thereof.

For the management of the process, the second aspect addressed involved electricity transmission and dispatching services. The Decree stipulated and implemented the separation of the Italian national transmission grid (NTG) from its management (transmission and dispatching activities) according to the Independent System Operator model. This led to the establishment of two separate companies: Terna, owner of the Italian national transmission grid, and GRTN, operator of the Italian national transmission grid.

20 years that changed the face of the energy world. Thanks to the liberalisation decree, the number of players in the Italian electricity system has increased. These same players now find themselves guiding choices through a set of parallel and coordinated actions to be taken to better manage the delicate and inevitable process of energy transition, starting with the decarbonisation of power plants to increase energy efficiency while also respecting the environment and the planet.

Terna, the Grid Operator, has identified very specific actions, including investments in the Italian National Transmission Grid and cross-border interconnections, aimed at strengthening the grid meshing; the development of additional storage capacity for the energy produced; the integration of the services market at European level and investments in digitisation and innovation.

Only by working together, at national and European level, can the next target be met: to offer the country an even more efficient, secure, interconnected and technologically advanced grid for the full integration of energy from renewable sources.