New high voltage interconnections with Islands in the mediterranean sea: Malta and Sicily. Analysis of the effects on renewable energy sources integration and benefits for the electricity market

The present paper shows the benefits coming from the operation of the recent electrical high voltage (HV) interconnections between Sicily, Malta and mainland Italy. These new interconnections allow zonal prices of electricity considerably lower than in the past, ensuring greater flexibility to the system and a better integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). After briefly illustrating the two high-voltage electrical systems (Sicily and Malta), and having provided a description of the interconnection cable with Malta and its protection devices, the authors hypothesized two modes of operation (Sicily-Malta system islanded or interconnected to the rest of Europe). For the first case (islanded) some simulations are performed through the use of an electric network model realized in the Neplan® environment, and for the second case an analysis of one year real data was made. The results of the simulation, thanks to the use of a power flow tracing method, show that this new interconnection between the two islands (Sicily and Malta) allows an important improvement in the integration and dispatching of the power generated by RES of the Sicilian territory, better operation of traditional Sicilian generation units, lower electricity zonal prices and a significant reduction in emissions from obsolete fuel oil thermal units located in Malta