ITALY

Locations and general description

EDYNA is the main DSO in South-Tyrol region, in the North of Italy. It manages 8,608 km of network (HV, MV and LV) and supplies electric power to 230,000 customers. Because of the mountain morphology of the territory, a lot of hydroelectric plants are connected to the grid with 348 MW power installed on 616 MW of total MV and LV production. In addition, EDYNA network supplies 50 sub-DSOs (i.e. minor distribution companies, managing a portion of MV network connected to the EDYN’s grid). To guarantee a better and safer service for citizens, and to support the adoption of sustainable and economic energy sources, EDYNA recently undertook intervention initiatives relevant to 1) increase and encourage the RES penetration; 2) guarantee an improvement in the Italian market and to reduce internal congestion of the electricity system; 3) increase security, quality and reliability of the loads supply.

MAIN CHALLENGES

In recent years, the spreading of a large amounts of Distributed Generation on distribution networks has led to raising issues in the operation of the MV/LV grids, because of the necessity to avoid exceeding in each operational condition the design limits of network’s components (lines, transformers): to avoid congestions, over/undervoltages, etc.

The effects on the grid of the just mentioned issues are particularly significant when the distribution network behaves like an active system, that is injecting active power into the HV grid (reverse power flow condition).

Proper actions are needed to suitably manage the network and the production downstream

INNOVATIONS AND SOLUTIONS

Dispatching platform for MV generation

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  • Development and implementation using an Active System Management
  • Monitoring test of the electrical quantities of the users
  • Study of the possibility to control user’s active and reactive power production to improve the operation of the network will be investigated

Mountainous valley grid operating in island mode

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  • Methodology in compliance with the standards CEI EN 50160, CEI 0-16 and Terna’s Network Code (Italian TSO).