RUSSIA POWER 2008
CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
15 – 17 April 2008
Moscow, Russia
The 2008 Russia Power Conference and Exhibition is now closed. However, we look forward to returning to Moscow next year on 28 – 30 April for Russia Power 2009, where with the help of our exhibitors and colleagues, we will be Turning Knowledge into Power.
Click image above to go to the Russia Power 2009 website
Day Three – Thursday 17 April
The modernization of Russia’s power sector will extend to renewables, delegates
heard on Day Three of Russia Power 2008. A bill passed by the Duma on Wednesday
16 April means that Russia will produce 21 per cent of energy from renewable
sources by 2020.
At present renewable sources account for just 0.6 per cent, so there is a very
long way to go. The move away from coal and natural gas will take several years,
but the potential is there for another energy revolution in Russia. As Ram
Narula, Chief Technology Officer of Bechtel Corporation put it, “The stone age
did not end because the world ran out of stone - technology moved on.”
At present it seems that the market has decided against solar power as a major
generation source, despite the fact that the world’s first installation of solar
photovoltaic energy was the Sputnik 3 satellite of 1958.
It will be wind power and in particular hydropower that will be the dominant
renewable sources. Russia has vast hydropower reserves that will provide the
energy for power plants large and small.
Designs for ‘mini-hydropower’ equipment, relics of the Soviet Union gathering
dust on the shelves of research institutions, are being developed after a
cash-strapped hiatus. These small units have the potential to transform the
lives of people in remote, isolated locations of Russia yet to be electrified.
Ahead of the liquidation of state power company RAO UES on 1 July, a record
number of exhibitors participated in Russia Power 2008, but the hard work has
only just begun. Russia Power 2009 will provide a fascinating end-of-term report
as to the progress of the privatization process.
Tim Probert
Associate Editor
Power Engineering International magazine
Day 2 – Wednesday 16 April
Rumour abounded that the Russian government was considering changing the rules
on the power sector reforms. There was talk among conference delegates that the
Duma, worried by the political implications of potentially soaring prices, could
pass a decree that would impose strict, indefinite tariffs on some of the new
foreign-controlled, privately-owned generating companies.
Moreover, Dominique Fache, chairman of Enel Russia & CIS, was deeply concerned
that - just 75 days before RAO UES is liquidated - the Duma has yet to issue a
decree on the much-touted ‘capacity market’, which would guarantee payments to
the generating companies based on electricity production and not demand.
Furthermore, there are grave misgivings that unless the soon to be created 11
state-owned transmission companies are not at least part-privatized, then
Russia’s obsolete, Soviet Union-era grid infrastructure will not receive the
investment it urgently needs.
Word from the exhibition floor was that despite the presence in Russia of
companies like GE, Siemens, Ansaldo Energia, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and
Alstom, as well as domestic manufacturers of gas and steam turbines such as
Power Machines, demand will outstrip supply by far during the early years of
privatization.
Competition with other regions that are in midst of a privatization boom, such
as the Middle East and Eastern Europe has left European gas & steam turbine
makers with little spare capacity and Russia could look to manufacturers from
elsewhere, such as China.
Tim Probert
Associate Editor
Power Engineering International
