Energy Efficiency and Environmental Friendliness – New Trends in Energy Industry for Cities and Regions
A panel discussion titled ‘Energy of the Future: Technological Solutions for Cities and Regions’ was held today, on 3 October, as part of the Russian Energy Week International Forum. Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Yury Manevich, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Housing and Utilities and Improvement Petr Biryukov, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG Ferdinand Varga, President and Chairman of the Management Board of Rostelecom Mikhail Oseevskiy, and General Director of Danfoss Mikhail Shapiro took part in the event to discuss urgent issues concerning the present and the past of the urban energy infrastructure.
According to Petr Biryukov, Moscow’s leadership sees four major challenges for the energy complex of the capital: a need of local residents for improving quality of services, digitalization of the infrastructure and services, outdated and worn out infrastructure, rising consumption of energy. To meet the challenges, the city ensured significant modernisation of energy infrastructure.
“Moscow was ranked 186 based on conditions for doing business 6 years ago, now we are in the top ten. Moscow is in top five of the most illuminated capitals in the world. It means that we are working non-stop, developing the system of architectural highlighting and outdoor lighting. The number of lighting devices has risen 1.5-fold for the past 9 years, while the amount of energy consumed has dropped 1.3-fold,” said Petr Biryukov.
He noted that the amount of natural gas consumed in the capital had currently decreased by around 30% due to advanced technology.
“There are a lot of examples like that. All of this is done for the benefit of residents of Moscow, to reduce their utilities and communal payments, and, speaking of our perspective, it is massive. Today, we want to switch to digital technology, from the consumer to the producer of the resources. Speaking of what has been done in the past years, the rates of incidents at heat, water, electric power and gas distribution systems, have dropped due to systemic renovations and modernisation of various systems. If distribution systems across the country, in general, are wearing out, in Moscow, they are being updated by 2.5% every year. Decisions like that mean that Moscow is not only an example for Russia, but also for the rest of the world. Today, Moscow is the leader in production and consumption of resources,” emphasised Deputy Mayor.
Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Yury Manevich said that the Ministry closely monitored best practices across Russian cities in satisfying the consumer’s needs, including Moscow. Russian capital is among the leaders in this regard, and supported innovations in developing energy infrastructure through introducing changes in regulations. This concerns both tariff regulations, modern technology, and creating mechanisms to make energy infrastructure available.
He emphasised that the energy industry was developing consistently with global trends: new technology, renewable energy sources, and energy storage systems are coming in.
“Disrupting technology in the power sector will sooner or later cause a transition to a new technology basis. ‘Energy revolution’ will change our regular vision. Renewable energy sources an energy storage systems, hybrid and electric vehicles, network technologies, such as actively adaptive networks, distributed power generation, ‘energy internet’, etc., energy efficient technology at homes – zero consumption, smart house, smarty city – are already at different stages of development and distribution,” said Yury Manevich.
Mikhail Oseevskiy continued on advance of new technologies and devices in housing and utilities infrastructure which have dramatically changed the lives of people within the past 10 years. He said that today the company is introducing a number of technologies in property management companies: digital infrastructure for smart flats, the smart house system that automatically submits resource consumption parameters to the management company, video surveillance systems, smart intercoms and boom barriers. The use of messengers to hold absence meeting of residents of the building is promising.
‘Digital technology is the basis of reliable energy supply to residents of the city. Moscow is the leader in remote power supply management and these solutions must be delivered to other regions,” said President of Rostelecom.
According to General Director of Danfoss Mikhail Shapiro, the standards for newly constructed building in Moscow are high. Even if the system of digital resource management has not been originally built, it can easily be added later. Equipment that allows individual heat metering for each flat is incorporated during construction. The resident can see how much heat they use to optimise the consumption, which will help cut the costs and provide energy efficiency.
“There is a variety of heat sources in any city. We want to build a system that will optimise heat distribution based on weather conditions and that will provide guidance for the operator to use this one source of energy or another,” shared his plans Mikhail Shapiro.
Ferdinand Varga noted that Moscow is a unique city in terms of its size, combined with modern and efficient decisions made here.
“Today, Moscow utilises the best heating system based on environmentally friendly fuel – natural gas. It reflects the trends to follow: energy efficiency and environmental friendliness, development of IT, right management of housing and utilities to provide the population with high quality services. It’s essential to keep going and be ready for new challenges. The future is in joint seamless co-operation that delivers the most effective services to the consumers,” said the expert.
The Russian Energy Week is organized by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and the Roscongress Foundation with the support of Moscow Government.
