Terna has rewarded the sustainable innovation projects developed in the company through the “Terna Ideas” corporate entrepreneurship programme. The company that operates Italy’s national transmission grid has also launched a new platform open to start-ups, researchers and innovative SMEs: the aim is to identify solutions and initiatives that can contribute to the energy transition.
The winning projects in the 2022 edition of “Terna Ideas”
“De-Icing”, “Terna Reliability” and “Orion” are the three winning business projects in the second edition of “Terna Ideas”, the corporate entrepreneurship programme launched by the company that operates Italy’s national transmission grid. An initiative that promotes a culture of innovation throughout the company’s workforce, giving employees the opportunity to act as entrepreneurs. The 2022 edition involved the entire corporate population and saw the participation of approximately 250 people. One of the main new features of this year’s edition is sustainability, which became one of the key and transversal criteria, both in the proposing and assessment stage. Terna has rewarded sustainable innovation in all three projects: “De-Icing” provides for the use of a remote-controlled heat box to melt the ice sleeves that form on the conductors of power lines in the winter months; “Terna Reliability” is a device that monitors the technical parameters of transformers and optimises activities; “Orion” is an AI algorithm that improves the resolution of the satellite images needed to identify promptly buildings and structures interfering with the easement bands of power lines. Furthermore, a special mention went to “Electrendicity”, a simulator game for training on the electricity market and the energy transition.
Promoting a culture of innovation: the purpose behind “Terna Ideas”
As part of the initiative, the company’s employees were invited to take part individually or in teams, presenting their idea or lending their skills to support one of the proposed projects. The second edition began in April 2022 and was structured with 10 events of the Innovation Roadshow around Italy. 250 people participated, with a total of 85 ideas published: ten projects followed dedicated incubation development, while the three winning initiatives will now go ahead with project development. As announced by the company, the 2023 edition will include an open innovation tool open to the external ecosystem. This is the reason why Terna has recently developed a new platform open also to start-ups, scaleups, innovative SMEs and researchers: the aim is to identify solutions and initiatives capable of contributing to the energy transition. To this end, on 15 December 2022, the company led by CEO and General Manager Stefano Donnarumma has launched a challenge on the new virtual space ternaideas.terna.it: the theme is Data Science for Resilience and the search for solutions to enhance the corporate data assets, supporting the company’s activities in the context of predictive maintenance and monitoring of electricity infrastructures. The approach of “Terna Ideas” is consistent with the Group’s vision in which technological and cultural innovation are considered key assets. It is also consistent with the 2021-2025 ‘Driving Energy’ Business Plan, whose update in March 2022 earmarked approximately 1.2 billion euros of investments – of the total of 10 billion – dedicated to innovation and digitalisation.
