​Italian battery revenues rose across H1 2026, driven by higher gas prices and wider day-ahead spreads. Across the six months, the Italian ME vBESS Index ranged between €95,500/MW/year in Centre-North and €149,000/MW/year in Sardinia.

Users can benchmark their own battery configuration against this index by building a virtual asset in the Terminal.

Key takeaways

• ​North Italy's four-hour day-ahead spread reaches €110,000/MW/year, 39% below Germany's €182,000/MW/year. Italian balancing services pay only for activated energy, so batteries cannot make up the difference with availability payments.
• Gas lifted northern revenues 2.8 times between February and April, from €48,700 to €135,000/MW/year. Revenue rose faster than the spread itself, so batteries captured more of the opportunity as it grew.
• ​Balancing income ranges from €600/MW/year in Calabria to €28,300/MW/year in Sardinia, where it accounts for 57% of the lead over Sicily, the second-best zone.

Italy trails other European battery markets

​​Italian battery revenues fall short of other European market Modo Energy benchmarks.

Italy's lowest earning zone, the North (ITN1), averaged €95,500/MW/year in H1 2026. That is 52.7% below Modo Energy's German benchmark and 58.3% below Spain.

​Two structural differences explain the gap.

First, wholesale spreads are narrower. The four-hour top-bottom (TB4) spread measures one perfect daily cycle at 100% efficiency, before any operating limits. Over H1 2026 it equated to €110,000/MW/year in the North and €182,000/MW/year in Germany.

Second, Italy pays for activated energy only. Both the manual balancing market, Mercato di Bilanciamento (MB), and automatic frequency restoration reserve (aFRR) remunerate the energy Terna calls, with no separate availability payment.

Consequently, Italian batteries have one fewer revenue stream than in markets that pay both for reserve capacity and for activation.

​

Higher gas prices widened the wholesale opportunity

Gas-fired plants set the price in Italy's most expensive hours. Gas costs rose through the spring lifting peak prices and resulting in wider spreads.