[Barbara Santini] «Electricity consumption is a good indicator of the country’s economic development. Terna uses the monthly industrial electricity consumption index (IMCEI) to monitor the consumption of around 1000 large industrial customers connected to the grid, referred to as "energy-intensive users". These are industries in the cement, iron and steel, mechanical engineering, paper and ceramics... those requiring the most energy. Initiated by the Ministry of Economic Development (formerly MISE), this index became an increasingly important economic indicator throughout the Covid-19 health emergency and the consequent reduction in consumption».
«My name is Barbara Santini, from the Statistics Office at Terna, and I analyse the situation of the electricity system».
[Claudio Liuni] «My name is Claudio Liuni, Head of System Measurements and Monitoring and at Terna, and my main task is the management of commercial measurement data for electricity exchanged on Terna’s high-voltage and extra-high-voltage grid».
«Today, we will understand how Terna measurement data is used as an information asset».
[Jingle with speaker] Sala Dati, the monthly podcast by Terna that explores the world of electricity consumption in Italy
[Barbara Santini] «The IMCEI index was created in the past using a small sample of measurements for withdrawals under the responsibility of the distributors representing the economic trend of industry and its energy-intensive sectors such as iron and steel, chemicals, mechanical engineering, and transport... in recent years the measurement scenario has changed. Claudio, which data are provided to us by your structure each month to create the Index?».
[Claudio Liuni] «Thank you Barbara. ARERA, the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment, through TIME, the Integrated Text on Electricity Measurement, from 1 January 2017, assigned Terna (and therefore us) with responsibility for measurement of all electricity withdrawn from our grid and thus for the last five years we have had the opportunity to directly create the IMCEI index with official measurements we take».
[Barbara Santini] «Claudio, does this mean that the precision and speed of the IMCEI index has improved in recent years?».
[Claudio Liuni] «Yes, exactly Barbara. Today, Terna validates commercial measurements for over 530 large industrial customers by the third working day of the month following that for which data is collected. Therefore, at the start of each month we are able to very quickly provide all measurements for the previous month. And this is not based simply on samples sent to us by the distributors, but includes the entire scope of measurements for Italian customers connected to the high and extra-high-voltage grid. Now Barbara, explain to us how you have created the index...».
[Barbara Santini] «The first step carried out with your data is to associate each plant measured with an “economic activity” code based on the use of the electricity withdrawn. Next, the dimensionless sector-specific indexes are created taking the year 2015 as base 100. You know Claudio, we have seen that the index for the industrial total is strongly correlated with industrial production».
[Claudio Liuni] «Fantastic. We are pleased that working together we have been able to add value to measurement data that we manage and validate, not only for commercial purposes, to identify the amount of energy issued or withdrawn from the grid by each electricity operator, but also for all of these reasons that you have explained. All of this would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. Don’t you think?».
[Barbara Santini] «Exactly, Claudio. Working together has enabled Terna to monitor individual sectors, tracking their reactions to external shocks. This has made it possible to examine the reaction to the pandemic, the post-pandemic recovery and, more recently, to tensions around energy prices. This data helps us to take the pulse of the economic situation in the country more quickly and easily».
«We’ve been Barbara Santini and Claudio Liuni, and you’ve been listening to the second episode of Sala Dati, the podcast about electricity consumption in Italy explained by Terna professionals».
