Performance Indicators of Electricity Generation at Country Level—The Case of Italy

Michel Noussan, Roberta Roberto and Benedetto Nastasi
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Michel Noussan: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Roberta Roberto: Energy Technologies Department, ENEA—Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Research Center of Saluggia, Strada per Crescentino 41, 13040 Saluggia, Italy
Benedetto Nastasi: Department of Architectural Engineering & Technology, Environmental & Computational Design Section, TU Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 134, 2628BL Delft, The Netherlands

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Power Grids face significant variability in their operation, especially where there are high proportions of non-programmable renewable energy sources constituting the electricity mix. An accurate and up-to-date knowledge of operational data is essential to guaranteeing the optimal management of the network, and this aspect will be even more crucial for the full deployment of Smart Grids. This work presents a data analysis of the electricity production at the country level, by considering some performance indicators based on primary energy consumption, the share of renewable energy sources, and CO 2 emissions. The results show a significant variability of the indicators, highlighting the need of an accurate knowledge of operational parameters as a support for future Smart Grid management algorithms based on multi-objective optimization of power generation. The renewable share of electricity production has a positive impact, both on the primary energy factor and on the CO 2 emission factor. However, a strong increase of the renewable share requires that the supply/demand mismatching issues be dealt with through appropriate measures.

Keywords: electricity generation; primary energy; renewable energy sources; data analysis; CO 2 emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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