On Thursday 21 December, the European Commission announced that it had authorised an Italian aid scheme worth €17.7 billion to support the construction of facilities to store surplus electricity during periods of overproduction. These facilities will have a combined capacity of more than 9 GW/71 GWh. The measure should contribute to achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal and the ‘Fit for 55’ package.
Aid will reach recipients in the form of annual payments covering investment and operating costs for developers of electricity storage devices.
The European Commission stresses that the scheme will be open to all technologies that meet the performance requirements set by the Italian transmission system operator and approved by the Italian energy regulator. The list of eligible storage technologies will be reviewed every two years.
The measure will incorporate a new ‘deferred exchange platform’ that will enable storage capacity to be pooled. This capacity will be offered to third parties in the form of deferred standardised products.
The Commission has examined this measure in the light of the European rules on State aid, and in particular Article 107(3)(c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the 2022 guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy. The scheme will run until 31 December 2033. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)