How a battery earns in Italy

Italy — dispatched by TSO Terna across seven bidding zones whose day-ahead auction (MGP) is run by exchange operator GME — is moving from the single national price (PUN) to zonal prices under the 2026 market reform. With renewables at 41% of 2025 consumption (solar alone 14.5%) and a connection queue of roughly 337 GW, congestion piles up in the south while demand sits in the industrial north. Italy’s answer is MACSE, Terna’s storage-capacity procurement mechanism backed by an EU-cleared €17.7 bn envelope: its first auction (Sept 2025) awarded 10 GWh of 15-year battery contracts, on top of ancillary-service revenue from FCR, aFRR and UVAM aggregations on the MSD market. Yet the everyday base is arbitrage: the last 30 days show a day-ahead spread of about €74/MWh — 54% of the average price — the margin a battery captures by charging cheap and discharging dear.

€74/MWh

Day-ahead spread — 54% of the average price (30 days)

10GWh

MACSE storage capacity awarded, first auction Sept 2025

41%

Renewables share of Italy's 2025 electricity consumption