Caspian Report - Issue: 07 - Spring 2014

AntonIo SIleo
84
Power generation of electricity
significantly affects Italian natural gas
consumption.
umes bounce back to 2005 levels,
the overall volatility of the market
will change. In fact, domestic use is
strictly related to climatic and seasonal
conditions (i.e. winter consumption
is much higher than summer
consumption) and from year to
year (for example, in the event of a
particular cold winter).
The second consequence raises security
issues: given the EU regulation
on security of supply 4 and its implementation
within national law, domestic
consumers are protected in
case of supply shortages. 5 This protection
guarantees supplies to consumers
in case of: 1) extreme temperatures
during a 7-day peak period
occurring with a statistical probability
of once in 20 years; 2) any period
of at least 30 days of exceptionally
high gas demand, occurring with a
statistical probability of once in 20
years; and 3) for a period of at least
30 days in case of the disruption of
the single largest gas infrastructure
under average winter conditions. An
increasing impact of domestic consumption
also increases the share of
protected consumers, and therefore
of the supply that must be secured to
the expenses of other uses, such as
power generation. Given the impact
of thermoelectric power generation
on total power generation in Italy, the
European provisions on supply security
raise serious concerns in case of
a winter disruption, when electricity
demand is high, photovoltaic produc-
4.
Regulation n. 994/2010.
5.
With other civil consumers, whose total consumption is less than 50,000 cubic meters per year.