IRD Project Working together to work better

The European Union’s climate targets and the “energy transition” are pushing in the direction of an increasingly significant contribution from renewable sources. Grids guarantee these processes in terms of safety and capacity and, as a consequence, they have already become a fundamental element of the transformation of the energy system.

Although there is general support for the use of renewables by civil society, the development of infrastructures is notoriously unpopular across Europe. Opposition to this kind of development can be intense and requires dialogue at the earliest stages of grid development. During 2018 RGI, along with Terna and Legambiente started a collaborative project called, Lavorare insieme per lavorare meglio (Working together to work better), in order to proactively address three main challenges to grid development in Italy.

First, the team aims at building a dialogue with strategic stakeholders on the reasons behind the identification of new grid infrastructures. The objective is to increase understanding among stakeholders, but also to enable Terna to increase opportunities for discussion and mutual learning with key stakeholders, reflecting this new knowledge in future strategic and planning activities.

Second, the team works on tackling the most relevant environmental issues encountered by infrastructure projects, addressing the issues that arise on the ground and trying to establish new approaches to identify problems and solutions

Third, the team aims at developing new indicators that adequately reflect the benefits of complementary actions/activities that make development projects “better projects”, i.e. projects that bring benefits to the territory beyond the primary purpose of electricity transmission. The objective is that the additional costs necessary to make projects more acceptable on the ground should normally be recognised in the planning of these same projects.