The planned pumped-hydroelectric storage project between Campolattaro and Monte Alto in the province of Benevento is back at the center of an administrative dispute. According to NTR24, the association O.R.M.E. formally asked Italy's Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (MASE) on 28 September 2026 to activate substitute powers over alleged inaction by the Provisional Management Committee of the Matese National Park.

The request concerns mandatory opinions connected with the extension of the project's Environmental Impact Assessment (VIA), which O.R.M.E. says have not been issued.

What O.R.M.E. requested

O.R.M.E. says it invoked Article 2, paragraphs 9-bis and 9-ter, of Law 241/1990, the provisions governing substitute action when an administration fails to conclude a procedure on time.

According to O.R.M.E.'s account reported by NTR24:

  • The Campania Region's "sentito" of 27 November 2025 identified the Matese Park Provisional Management Committee as the competent body for the Special Area of Conservation "Pendici Meridionali del Monte Mutria."
  • O.R.M.E. sent a formal notice to the committee on 19 August 2026, setting a 30-day deadline.
  • That deadline, in O.R.M.E.'s calculation, expired on 18 September 2026 without the requested opinion.

O.R.M.E. therefore asks the MASE to set a deadline for the committee, conclude the procedure within 15 days, and revoke its own Decree No. 503/2026. NTR24 reports the request in those terms; the decree itself was not independently reviewed in the available documentation, so its exact content remains unverified.

It is also not yet clear from the available sources whether the park committee has since issued the opinion or whether the ministry has acted on the request.

What the Campolattaro–Monte Alto project is

The project is a pumped-hydroelectric storage facility planned across three municipalities in the Sannio area: Morcone, Pontelandolfo and Campolattaro, in the province of Benevento.

The official public notice describes:

  • A new upper storage basin at Monte Alto, with approximately 7 million cubic metres of useful volume
  • A regulation and pumping plant located approximately 500 metres underground
  • Approximately 570 MWe of capacity in generation mode and 630 MWe in pumping mode
  • An underwater intake inside the existing Campolattaro reservoir
  • Underground galleries connecting the hydraulic works
  • Approximately 7 kilometres of overhead transmission line in the municipality of Pontelandolfo

In practical terms, pumped storage works as a large electricity battery: water is pumped uphill to the upper reservoir when electricity is abundant, then released downhill through turbines when demand is high. The Campolattaro reservoir would function as the lower basin of the system, with Monte Alto as the upper basin.

A project with a long administrative history

The current authorization process is not the first environmental procedure concerning hydropower use of the Campolattaro basin.

A 2014 Campania decree concerned environmental impact and incidence assessments for an "impianto idroelettrico di regolazione sul bacino di Campolattaro," proposed at that time by REC S.r.l. The full continuity between that earlier proposal and the present Campolattaro–Monte Alto pumped-storage scheme would require confirmation from the complete authorization record.

The present dispute, by contrast, concerns a later phase: the extension of the VIA and the related nature-conservation opinions for the Natura 2000 site "Pendici Meridionali del Monte Mutria." O.R.M.E.'s broader claims about procedural irregularity and habitat compatibility are presented as the association's position and were not independently confirmed through the underlying administrative documents.

What to watch next

The immediate question is procedural: whether the MASE will accept O.R.M.E.'s request, assign a deadline to the Matese Park committee, and exercise substitute powers.

A second question concerns Decree No. 503/2026, whose revocation O.R.M.E. seeks. Without the text of that decree, its legal effect on the VIA extension cannot be established from the sources available here.

For residents of Morcone, Pontelandolfo and Campolattaro, the substantive issues remain the project's footprint — the upper reservoir, underground works, intake in the existing Campolattaro lake and the planned transmission line — and how national energy-storage objectives are reconciled with protected-area safeguards in the Matese area.