Sicily and Italy as electricity hub in the mediterranean area for the development of the European power grids interconnections

Falling demand and explosion of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are redesigning the criteria for planning the power grids interconnections by ENTSO-E. In particular, the interconnections between networks of different countries have been acquiring importance more and more, in view of an unique European market for electricity and an increase of RES. Italy and Sicily, placed in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, play a fundamental role as a bridge between Central Europe, North Africa area and Mediterranean islands (electricity hub). This paper aims to show how power system exchanges tend to follow the direction from South to North, and how the impact of North-African power - mainly generated by RES - on the Italian system is relevant. Furthermore, the present work wants to explain how the future interconnections with the Sicilian power grids will allow a higher transmission capacity from North Africa to North Europe, and an improvement of the European electricity system.