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All the projects of Eni, Enel, Snam and Terna that will (perhaps) end up in the new Pnrr

All the projects of Eni, Enel, Snam and Terna that will (perhaps) end up in the new Pnrr

The Meloni government is working on updating the Pnrr in the light of RePowerEu, the European plan for the energy transition. Here's what was said at the control room with the top management of Eni, Enel, Snam and Terna

“A plan that will make Italy more sustainable from an energy point of view by increasing the production of energy from renewable sources, diversifying supply sources and reducing consumption”. These are the three fundamental points of the European Commission's vision on energy, listed by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during yesterday's meeting of the so-called "PNRR control room".

THE PURPOSE OF THE MEETING

The meeting served to discuss the update of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to include a new chapter on REPowerEU , the European program for accelerating the ecological transition.

THE MINISTERS AND THE MANAGERS OF ENI, ENEL, SNAM AND TERNA

Several ministers attended – including Raffaele Fitto for European Affairs, Giancarlo Giorgetti for the Economy and Gilberto Pichetto Fratin for the Environment – and the managing directors of the main Italian energy companies, all owned by the state: Claudio Descalzi of Eni, Francesco Starace of Enel, Stefano Venier of Snam and Stefano Donnarumma of Terna.

THE PUSH TO THE "PIANO MATTEI"

The revised and integrated PNRR must be submitted to the European Commission by 30 April.

According to Meloni, the new PNRR "will allow Italy to make a strong contribution to the implementation of the ' Mattei plan ' in order to consolidate the process of diversifying supplies towards a total elimination of Russian gas and to make Italy an energy hub in the Mediterranean for all of Europe in a fruitful cooperation relationship especially with African countries”.

Through the "Mattei plan", the government aims to transform Italy into a "gas hub", i.e. a reception center for fuel produced in North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus, and subsequently for distribution to Europe north, where the countries with the highest consumption are located (Germany, for example).

Furthermore, Meloni's vision does not stop at fossil fuels, but also includes electricity from renewable sources and green hydrogen in the future.

– Read also: Gas hub in Italy? What Eni, Snam and Terna think

THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR THE NEW PNRR

As Repubblica explains, the leadership of the control room for updating the PNRR is entrusted to Minister Fitto. The government intends to include in the plan only energy projects that can be concretely implemented by 2026 (REPowerEU covers up to 2026-2027).

As for resources – which the newspaper defines as "the great unknown that hangs over the scope of Meloni's plan" – the government should be able to count on 2.7 billion euros in non-repayable funds, plus 7.5 percent of the last part of the Cohesion Fund.

Italy could obtain new loans linked to the PNRR, which have "cheaper prices compared to market rates", writes Repubblica , but still provide for interest to be paid.

– Read also: Invitalia flop on funds for renewables and batteries

THE ENERGY PROJECTS OF ENI, ENEL, SNAM AND TERNA

Meloni asked the representatives of Eni, Enel, Snam and Terna to present "few, necessary and feasible" projects related to the energy transition – therefore consistent with the objectives of REPowerEU – to be included in the revised PNRR.

Despite the historical focus on fossil fuels, Eni has for several years integrated low-carbon energies into its activities: it is focusing in particular on biofuels , obtained from organic waste, from agricultural and livestock industry waste and from crops not intended for 'food use. The company has converted two traditional plants, in Venice and Gela, into biorefineries and is working on the expansion of the latter to increase the production of biofuel for aircraft .

Bio fuels have a lower overall carbon footprint than fossil fuels because they are made from waste materials, but still release carbon dioxide when burned. However, CO2 can be captured through carbon capture and storage technologies. Eni is betting a lot on it: in Italy – but it is also very active abroad, inside and outside Europe – it is planning a site for the storage of CO2 off the coast of Ravenna, inside the depleted gas fields in the Adriatic Sea.

CCS Ravenna Hub – this is the name of the project, which has not received funds from the PNRR – is expected to store 500 megatons of CO2; the start-up of phase one, with a 25,000-ton capacity, is scheduled for 2023.

Terna, the operator that manages the Italian electricity transmission grid, is instead studying various interconnection projects . The most important are the Tyrrhenian Link, a double submarine cable that will connect Sicily with Sardinia and the peninsula, and a second infrastructure between Italy and Montenegro.

Snam, the company that manages the Italian pipeline network, would like to enhance, doubling it, the capacity of Linea Adriatica, the pipeline that runs along the Adriatic coast, in order to allow for an increase in fuel imports from North Africa: at least four years of work will be needed according to Venier. Last year, Algeria was Italy's main gas supplier due to the separation from Russia; in 2023 it should see its importance grow further.

Lastly, Enel would like to build a new regasification terminal for the importation of liquefied gas (LNG) in Porto Empedocle, in Sicily , but this is opposed by the local authorities. The regasification terminal would be able to treat around 8 billion cubic meters of LNG per year, out of a total gas consumption of around 68 billion cubic meters (2022 figure).


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/governo-meloni-pnrr-repowereu/ on Tue, 07 Feb 2023 09:05:21 +0000.