Abstract: The European electricity system has so far guaranteed the connection between producers and consumers of electrical energy with efficiency and reliability enabling at the same time the social and economical development of UE state members. The system evolution has allowed the management and connection of huge, centralized power plants usually located far away from the main consumer centers. Recent scenarios, however, have greatly changed the two needs of reducing atmospheric emissions and improving electrical energy efficiency in distribution and consumption. In future years electricity systems will have to be greatly modified in order to meet the demands of consumers/clients called to play a more and more active role in a liberalized electricity market. For this transformation to be reliable and economically sustainable, a radical change is required in the planning, management and development of the electrical system as established by the European Commission on the UE SmartGrids technology platform, which can collect contributions from industry, transmission and distribution utilities, research bodies, universities and regulators. The issue is, of course, of great national and international interest, since such innovative developments of the electricity system will place heavy burdens on UE human and financial resources at various levels during the next two decades. This very ambitious program outlines both the goals and the paths to follow in a well-consolidated, experienced context. The scheduled development will require very high-level technological competence, as well as interdisciplinarity and innovation spirit in order to face the challenges coming from a rapidly evolving world. As a matter of fact, the need to reform the UE electricity system meets the growing demand for electric energy, the rise of a liberalized global electricity market and the challenge to integrate more sustainable generation resources, including renewable alternatives. The new distribution grids, which are active for the presence of distributed generation and where customers are consumers and producers at the same time, require the development of new, important technologies and can certainly offer promising opportunities for the countries willing to face the challenge.

Brief biography of the speaker:
Francesco Muzi is a professor of Power Systems at the University of L’Aquila, Italy, where he has also the scientific responsibility for the Power System Group. His main research interests concern Power systems transients and dynamics, Reliability and power quality in distribution systems, Power systems diagnostics and protection. In these fields, he authored or co-authored over 100 scientific papers published in reviewed journals or presented at international conferences. He received mentions in books edited by John Wiley & Sons, New York and participated to the outline of the “IEEE Guide for improving the lightning performance of electric lines”, IEEE Standards Department, New York. He has also a patent for an industrial invention, namely “Power system controlled by a microprocessor”. He is a regional chairman of the Italian National Lighting Society and was a chairman or keynote lecturer in a number of international conferences organized by different prestigious societies. He is a technical reviewer for the following international journals: IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Electric Power Systems Research by Elsevier Science, IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution.