Hotline of power engineering specialists:
On the first day of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum (SPIEF), at the session "Digital Transformation of Russia’s Electric Utilities: Preparedness for Challenges, Openness to Opportunities" representatives of grid companies of PJSC "Rosseti" and heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation discussed concrete steps to implement the strategy of digitalization of the country’s electric grid complex.
The session was attended by Governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov, Governor of the Novgorod region Andrey Nikitin, Deputy Director General for Strategic Development of PJSC "Rosseti" Evgeny Olkhovich, heads of subsidiaries of PJSC "Rosseti" - Yantarenergo, IDGC of Centre, IDGC of Siberia.
Within the discussion, General Director of IDGC of Centre, the managing company of IDGC of Centre and Volga Region, Oleg Isaev, made a report. During his speech, he noted that the new digital technology will require a significant overhaul of the existing infrastructure. In addition, there have been several concerns that digitalization requires unnecessarily high costs. Costs are undoubtedly necessary, but the priority of their focus should be such that the first steps in the digitalization of the grid have the maximum effect and build it up in the future.
Telling the participants of the discussion about the company’s experience of implementing new digital projects in the regions, Oleg Isaev noted that, during their implementation, new unique non-standard solutions were found that uniquely fit into the digitalization process.
The first is a "digital electrician" - a person whose automation and intellectual devices insure mistaken actions, from an accident, prompt him optimal solutions, make his work more efficient.
The second is effective and inexpensive solutions for power grid observability, which, in combination with a multiservice network, make all processes occurring in grids completely transparent.
The third is systems for self-healing and self-diagnosis of the grid. Here, on the way, there is an interesting solution: an automated system using unmanned aerial vehicles that will give all information about the state of power lines, starting from a crack on a pole, ending with ice formation and other threatening processes.
At the end of his speech, General Director of IDGC of Centre noted that the new digital approach to the operation of the power grid complex that affects all areas of the electric power industry requires different thinking and fundamentally new solutions in planning and operation and even requires changes in the structure of energy enterprises.
