“Day of Russia” at the World Energy Congress Daegu 2013

Today, October 16, the “Day of Russia” was arranged within the course of the World Energy Congress Daegu 2013. At the event the leaders of the Ministry of Energy of RF, State Duma Committee for Energy and the largest Russian power companies spoke to their foreign colleagues and partners on main directions in the Russian power industry development as well as major and most promising investment projects. Industry leaders also shared their views about the development prospects of the world power industry and its fields. The key speakers at the event were Ministry of Energy of RF Alexander Novak, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy Ivan Grachev, Chairman of the Management Board of JSC “RusHydro” Evgeny Dod, Director General of JSC “Russian Grids” Oleg Budargin.

During his opening speech the Minister of Energy of RF A. Novak stated that the power industry is the main engine of the country’s economic development. For the power industry to meet modern requirements of the economic development the following three main tasks should be accomplished:

- increasing the profitability of production of resources;

- developing the energy infrastructure;

- improving the efficiency of the fuel and energy sector.

The Minister informed the conference participants that at present, in order to fulfill the set strategic objectives, a number of large projects on construction of facilities for production, processing and transportation of oil and gas are implemented and long-term contracts for supplies of energy resources are signed with foreign power companies and financial institutions. Besides, great attention is paid to setting up joint enterprises with countries of the Asian Pacific Region for manufacturing high-tech equipment for the power industry.

Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy Ivan Grachev spoke about the ideas of the Russian legislative authorities concerning the main technical and economic aspects as well as prospects of using certain energy resources. According to Ivan Grachev, despite vigorous activities in the field, power generation based on RES and shale gas still gives rise to a number of questions. Taking into account rather low economic efficiency of these technologies, gas, coal and oil will remain to be main energy resources in the coming years. It is increasing the production and export of these resources that Russia aims at in the foreseeable future; it is support of production and use of these resources that the efforts of the Russian legislative authorities are directed at.

The information provided by the speakers raised keen interest of all foreign specialists present, who, having heard the answers to the questions of their interest, could fully understand the prospects, opportunities and needs of the Russian power industry.

On the same day, the stand of the Ministry of the Russian Federation hosted a round-table discussion “Green Energy. Renewable energy sources and energy-efficient technologies”. The event moderator was General Director of “AltEnergo” Viktor Filatov. Deputy Minster of Energy of RF Anton Inyutsin also participated in the discussions.

The topics for discussions were the following: peculiarities of the use of RES in Russia, reducing the environmental impact, multifunctional facilities for autonomous power supply of consumers in regions not connected to centralized distribution grids, scientific and technical problems of modern power industry and other issues in the field. Deputy Minister of Energy of RF Anton Inyutsin described the “green” energy as an interesting and promising direction.

The round-table discussion moderator Viktor Filatov told the participants about the development of alternative energy in Russia using the example of Belgorod Region, with its high level of development of the agroindustrial sector. The bioenergy potential of the region exceeds 220 MW. The country’s largest biogas station “Luchki” 2.4 MW of “AltEnergo” company in the region has been in successful operation for more than a year.

In their dialogue the participants of the discussion emphasized the success of the implemented projects on construction and commissioning of small-generation facilities using RES. They also specified the further steps on improving the efficiency of projects based on RES and possible territories of their most rational use.

Representatives of the magazine “ELECTRIC POWER. Transmission and Distribution” took most active part in all the events of the World Energy Congress.

At the Congress Ekaterina Guseva, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, interviewed Mr. Younghoon David Kim, Co-Chair of the World Energy Council, the official inauguration of whom is to take place on October 17, at the end of business events of the Congress. They talked about the prospects of international cooperation of Russia and South Korea in the energy field. The interview will be published in the magazine “ELECTRIC POWER. Transmission and Distribution”, issue № 6 (21), November-December, 2013.