Hotline of power engineering specialists:
During a plenary session of the International Forum “Electric Grids” in Moscow, participants discussed prospects for creating modern power grid facilities in Russia based on digital technologies and concluded that in order to implement the plans outlined, it is necessary to improve the regulatory framework, to carry out diversification of products of the military-industrial complex of the country for the needs of civilian infrastructure and carefully study the experience of foreign countries that are already implementing projects to construct smart electric grids.
In his opening speech, the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, Alexander Novak, emphasized that much has already been done to improve the reliability and quality of power supply, but the power engineers have the task of creating modern and convenient power grid facilities for all consumers that will be protected from external threats.
President of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, Andrey Sharonov, reminded that digitalization is one of the three main trends in the development of the global economy. “For example, annual investments in digital projects in the electric power industry in the world exceeded $50 billion in 2016, while the expected reduction in costs of power engineers will be from 10 to 25%, i.e. will lead not only to an increase in efficiency, but also to a reduction in the final cost of electricity,” he noted.
The head of ROSSETI’s Group of Companies, Pavel Livinskiy, stated that in order to transfer the electric grid complex to digital control and achieve the stated indicators both in terms of reliability and cost of services they provide, it is necessary to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of grid enterprises, change the logic of business processes and develop domestic production component base.
Much has been done together with the Presidential Administration, the Government of the Russian Federation, relevant ministries and departments to resolve the first issue: in the near future long-term tariff agreements for transmission and distribution of electricity will be concluded with regions, the law on smart metering was approved by the State Duma of the Russian Federation, a balanced, an economically sound approach to subsidized new connections, a reserve of power and a uniform social burden on all categories of consumers.
Today, for further steps, on the basis of the results of pilot projects, we need to formulate new uniform rules for the game, adopt a digital grid standard at the level of the entire complex of the country, and not just within ROSSETI’s Group. To this end, the company has developed and will soon submit for public discussion the concept of a new standard for the functioning of smart grid facilities.
The head of the holding spoke about the ongoing work in terms of changes in management, production and technological processes within the company, as well as the formation of requirements for necessary technologies and equipment, so that all stakeholders understand what is needed and in what amounts.
“Today, together with colleagues from among manufacturers of electrical equipment and software, we are doing a lot of work to create and develop the production of the required product range in Russia, paying great attention to data security. One of the ways is the development of convergent technologies by the military-industrial complex, which will, on the one hand, satisfy the demand of grid enterprises for modern cybersecurity equipment, and, on the other, diversify their product line of colleagues,” stated Pavel Livinskiy.
In conclusion, the head of ROSSETI spoke about plans for development of value-added services based on grid infrastructure, which comes into every home and opens up tremendous prospects for the group of companies to become the basis of the Internet of Things in the country.
Dominique Fache, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Technology Foundation, called for a very accurate assessment of the prospects for the development of digitalization and the overall development of the electric power industry in the country, so as not to encounter an oversupply of new and even traditional, but already unclaimed services. As a measure to reduce risk, the French specialist suggested investing not only in the development of production and infrastructure, but also science, in order to arrive at the right balance.
Sergey Kulikov, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Military Industrial Commission, focused on the development of partnership programs within the framework of digitalization of electricity grids both within the country, including the military-industrial complex, and with foreign colleagues, and also proposed to develop balanced approaches to the procurement of all stakeholders. Separately, he noted the potential of ROSSETI, taking into account the highest level of penetration, to become an infrastructure bus for the entire digital economy of the country.
Member of the Board - Deputy Chairman of the Board of NP Market Council Oleg Barkin noted that it is important to achieve technology adaptation and provide open access to data at all levels of the industry, not forgetting about the retail electricity markets and consumers.
Ilya Sochkov, Founder and CEO of Group-IB, focused the attention of the participants on the security of such critical infrastructure as the electric grid complex. He noted that in order to accomplish this task it is extremely important to know who represents the threat and why it needs it, correctly implementing the theory of probability in terms of potential threats. And it is necessary to constantly receive the latest and relevant information about the methods, technologies and goals of cybercriminals, regularly reading reliable sources.
