**4.1 Italy**

The Italian CBA showed a positive net benefit, coming from the reduction of the operation costs mainly due to two reasons: the lower cost of metering compared to the manual reading and the reduction of energy theft. The CBA does not consider the installation of In-Home Display (IHD) as underlined Poletti et al. [15].

*Demand Response Applications for the Operation of Smart Natural Gas Systems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101810*

According to the Plan of the Authority for the Electric, Gas and Water, the mass market rollout started in Italy in 2013. The gas smart meter deployment target adopted was more ambitious than those set by other European countries pretending to end the mass-market stage of the rollout by the end of 2018. Conversely, the installation of electronic meters is still ongoing due to several disruptions (lack of funding and infrastructure) even if it shows a considerable growth, according to Bianchini et al. [16]. The new target period to complete the wide-scale rollout has been extended up to 2023 with the installation of 85% smart gas meters.

During 2020, almost three-quarters of domestic customers, 85% of condominiums, 75% of public service activities, and two-thirds of customers with other uses (**Figure 4**) were installed. By the end of 2020, the total number of gas smart meters installed was 23,854 thousand while the number of remaining traditional smart meters was 7432 thousand (comprising class from G4 up to G40) [17].
