Gas storage services and regulation in Italy: A Delphi analysis

The objective of this paper is to assess to which extent gas market inefficiencies, such as weak competition, import dependence and lack of flexibility tools, affect operation and usage of storage services in Italy in the aftermath of the EU liberalization process. The analysis is supported by the empirical results of a Delphi survey that we have conducted to investigate storage service provision and regulation in Italy. We argue that the Italian storage sector is at a crossroads. The policy-driven phase of liberalization is ending and the market-driven phase has just begun. The former phase has granted fair access to storage, narrowed the likelihood of strategic behaviour by the incumbent and secured residential users against supply disruptions, but it has proved dynamically inefficient. Cost-reflective tariffs and low penalties for unbalances have both lowered incentives to expand the range of flexibility tools and penalized industrial customers demand. The market-driven phase has just started. The expected increase in working capacity and the entry of newcomers in the authorization process for new facilities are a progress towards the commercial use of storage. To this end, however, a further change in gas market design is needed: the creation of a well functioning spot market.