June 2024, Year XVI, n. 6
Paolo Arrigoni
Do you know what is GSE?
“The GSE is responsible for promoting sustainable development in Italy by managing incentive mechanisms for renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility as well as translating government decisions into tools.”
Telos: The GSE operates ‘according to the guidelines of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE)'. What does this mean?
Paolo Arrigoni: The GSE is responsible for promoting sustainable development in Italy by managing incentive mechanisms for renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility as well as translating government decisions issued through the MASE into tools.
In order to do this efficiently, the GSE works along four main lines: Monitoring, Operations, Support and Training and lastly, Promotion. The GSE monitors data on the achievement of intermediate sustainability goals and until 2030 on the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) and as head of the National Statistics System, it generates national statistics on renewable energy sources, particularly on photovoltaic energy. At the end of 2023, there were almost 1,600,000 active plants in Italy, most of which were small, but also medium and large plants. If you think that in 2010 there were only 160,000 plants, you can see how far we have come on our transition journey. The GSE is also tasked with providing incentives and tools to guarantee the energy capacity of the Italian production system. These activities are based on its management of tutoring services for citizens, companies and local agencies, and on technical consulting provided to ministries in order to build the required legal infrastructure for the Italian energy transition. Finally, the GSE promotes initiatives to boost awareness of the tools and services available in local areas, spread a culture of sustainability and call attention to the important role each individual citizen plays in the energy transition the country is being called to undertake. For this reason, last 28 September the GSE road show set off from Lecco across Italy on an awareness raising campaign aimed at Mayors and public administrators, companies and Chambers of Commerce regarding the tools and opportunities GSE offers. It also shared its good practices with schools to incentivise renewable energy use, sustainable mobility and energy efficiency. On top of all this, since March we have been working alongside the MASE on the initiative InsiemeEnergia, a tour around Italy to spread awareness of the opportunities offered by Renewable Energy Communities (CER) in all the Italian regions.
Everybody is talking about Renewable Energy Communities right now, but it’s not just the new buzzword, it’s something very important. Can you explain what they are and the role the GSE plays?
Renewable Energy Communities (CERs) and, more generally, Renewable Energy Sharing Consumption Configurations (CACERs) are the new frontier in renewable energy use because they enable the transition from individual physical self-consumption to remote, virtual consumption. Renewable Energy Communities allow remote individual entities connected to the same primary substation to virtually share electricity produced by one or more renewable energy plants using a distribution network and the existing meters.
To make this evolution possible and allow everybody to take part in the energy transition, the regulations incentivise three different configurations: Renewable Energy Communities (CERs), groups of self-consumers and remote individual self-consumption.
CERs are made up of at least two distinct connection points linking respectively a consumer pool and a production plant within the perimeter of the same primary substation.
The second configuration is made up of groups of self-consumers that act collectively, consisting of at least two distinct connection points linking respectively a consumer pool and a production plant, where energy is consumed within the same building, such as an apartment complex or a business. The third consists of a final user who owns all the connection points for distribution in a configuration and uses the distribution network to share the energy generated by one or more plants located in areas at its complete disposal.
In order to develop these configurations, 20-year incentives have been put in place on the energy shared among the configuration users. What’s more, for CERs and self-consumption groups whose production plants are located in towns with a population of less than 5,000, the NRRP has set aside capital incentives covering up to 40% of the admissible costs.
In addition to managing these incentives, the GSE provides a series of services to help understand and Construct remote self-consumption configurations, like Interactive Maps of Primary Substations, essential tools to check whether the configuration’s connection points comply with the prerequisite of belonging to the same primary substation. It also has a solar PV self-consumption portal where you can simulate an energy and economic assessment of the initiative. Then in terms of training and awareness raising, we have webinars, manuals, information snippets, newsletters, handbooks prepared with the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) for municipalities, with the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) for parishes, use cases with specific configuration examples and a virtual desk.
You have been president of the GSE for a year now. Can you tell us how things have gone?
Positively, for sure. MD Vinicio Mosè Vigilante and I both felt the need to undertake a series of actions right from the start based on listening to the operators, sectorial associations and innovative technology producers, essential to ensure processes were streamlined but no less rigorous and to ensure the success of the projects.
The initial streamlining, which entailed the rationalisation of the requirements to carry out the interventions and to maintain the incentivised plants, were accompanied by consultation forums, training webinars and virtual desks where users and operators interact directly with GSE technicians regarding the tools the company provides for citizens, companies and the public administration.
This new pathway has helped us make our internal processes more efficient and respond faster to operators.
What future incentives are in store for the country’s production network?
The GSE is in charge of implementing some measures set out in the NRRP. Three of these are reserved for the agricultural sector with Agrisolar, allocated 2.35bn euros, Agrivoltaico Innovativo, allocated 1.1 bn euros and finally, the development of biomethane, allocated 1.9 bn euros.
However, in the near future, we will be managing support mechanisms set out in two new decrees that will soon be approved on the development of Renewable Energy Sources (FER), which between 2024 and 2028, through invitations to tender set out in the FER 2, will stimulate the creation of 4.6 GW of new capacity from renewable energy plants using innovative technologies,and through those provided for in FER X, they will guarantee another 67 GW of renewable power based on technologies that are already competitive.
Through Energy Release, we will be promoting the self-production of renewable energy in energy-intensive sectors that risk being delocalised and, for the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, we will be managing 6.3 bn euros set aside in the NRRP for Transition 5.0.
Marco Sonsini
Editorial
There are some acronyms we use without even really thinking about them. However, if we were asked to explain what they stand for, we might have a hard time answering because sometimes we just don’t know. For example, how many of you know what “GSE” stands for, or more importantly, what it does? Yet this company has a significant impact on our lives.
Our guest for the June issue of PRIMOPIANOSCALAc is Paolo Arrigoni, an engineer and the President of GSE. In our interview, he provides a bare bones explanation of exactly what GSE (Gestore dei Servizi Energetici- Energy Services Management) does. Arrigoni was nominated GSE President at a time when the energy crisis and energy costs began really taking a toll on citizens. Here I’d like to dedicate a bit of space to one of the many topics addressed by the President: Renewable Energy Communities (CERs).
Energy Communities are organisations of users, public agencies, companies and commercial activities that work together to produce, consume, share and manage energy from local renewable sources. Something that is easier said than done. This is why, when the idea of forming Energy Communities was first announced, people were wary. Without intending to come off asobsessed with xenophilia, remember that in Germany there are about 5,000 active energy communities, but the Germans got started on this about a decade ago.
However, in Italy over the last year or so, they have become a hot button issue for anyone working in the energy sector, backed by regulatory provisions that have made everything a little easier. And who did that? The GSE, in close cahoots with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security [MASE]. Arrigoni explains the main feature of this collaboration in a phrase: GSE is responsible for “translating government decisions issued through the MASE into tools.”
Now let’s go back to the Energy Communities. For a long time, energy was seen as a cost. However, thanks to the production capacity of renewables, energy efficiency and the technological development brought on by the digital shift, the paradigm is switching to one with the possibility of profit. Energy Communities are part of this outlook, allowing us to produce and enjoy energy generated elsewhere, not just the energy you get when you plug something into an outlet athome.
In Italy, we have already shifted toward more widespread electrification, to the point that the existing network can no longer meet demand, and we can no longer afford to waste energy from renewable sources. Energy is a good that must be consumed as soon as it is generated, so the move toward energy communities is almost a must.
Of course, there are still bureaucratic and social hurdles to overcome, incentives are needed but there aren’t enough to develop CERs, whose strength lies in the shift away from a centralised energy development model to a more de-centralised, conscious one. This means that whole communities must get involved, people must be informed and knowledge must be circular – in addition to circular economies –to take advantage of the opportunities offered by this significant change of pace. And the GSE is doing its part here as well. Read Arrigoni’s interview and you’ll find out how.
By now you all know that PRIMOPIANOSCALAc's 2024 covers are inspired by the works of Romano Gazzera, a Piedmontese painter known for his ‘giant’, ‘talking’, ‘flying’ flowers which, along with other iconographic themes connected to historical and collective memory, characterised and distinguished him as the frontrunner of the Italian Neo-floral school.
For Arrigoni we have chosen the sun-loving sunflower, which turns towards the sun as it moves across the sky, a phenomenon known as heliotropism. Our country gets a good portion of its renewable energy from the sun, that energy which Arrigoni takes care of.
Did you know there is a method of capturing the sun’s rays that imitates sunflowers? It’s called the “Smartflower”, a solar panel with 12 petals that opens at dawn, turns to follow the sun over the course of the day and closes after sunset.
Mariella Palazzolo
Paolo Arrigoni was trained as an engineer and served as a Senator of the Republic from 2013 to 2022. He has always dealt with environmental and energy issues.
In March 2023 he was appointed President of GSE, bringing to this office his vast experience and deep knowledge of the sector. With his skill and dedication, he has helped GSE carry out its mission and promote sustainable and innovative energy solutions throughout Italy.
During his term as Senator, he played an important role as a member of the 13th Committee for the Territory and Environment and was on the Parliamentary Committee on Schengen, Europol and Immigration and the Parliamentary inquiry Committee to investigate illegal activities relating to the waste cycle and correlated environmental crimes. He served as Quaestor [i.e. three Senators who are responsible for the security, budget and financial accounts]; and was on the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (COPASIR). In 2020 he was appointed head of the Energy Department of his party, the League.
Arrigoni was born in Lecco in 1964 but lives in Calolziocorte, a lovely little town on Olginate Lake, where he served two consecutive terms as Mayor.
Marco Sonsini
SocialTelos