The Promotion of Energy Efficiency and Transparency in the Fuel and Energy Complex: Nationwide Meeting

KEY CONCLUSIONS

Informational support is essential for the fuel and energy sector

“A process is under way to attract investment to the oil and gas industry. The decision was made to introduce the so-called windfall profit tax in the oil industry. This is also a specific aspect of ​​information work that we have set for ourselves. None of this – trillions of investments, serious budget and tariff decisions – could be done, of course, without informational support”, Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Anton Inyutsyn said.

“This year we held about 640 events throughout Russia. This is taking into account the events that we joined when they were held at the regional and municipal level. But the number of events that we initiated almost doubled to 600. More than 1 million people took part in them, and there was also quite good coverage”, Director of the Information Policy and Public Relations Department at Rosseti Dmitriy Bobkov said.

“You can achieve results only by routine, daily informational work. In general, everything depends on the attitude of the company, on its reputation. If the company has a good reputation, then, accordingly, people will agree with the proposal, because by and large no one wants to understand why tariffs, why alternative boiler houses, why you cannot live as you did before”, Andrey Morozov, Director for Public Relations with public, Siberian Generating Company.

The fuel and energy sector is number one in terms of industries covered by the media

“Almost 2 million reports were written about the fuel and energy sector over [the first] 9 months [of 2018]. The fuel and energy sector is the number one among all industries in terms of media coverage industries. It is the industry that has been the most thoroughly reviewed. Many national mass media outlets and many regional mass media outlets write about the fuel and energy sector, and it’s primarily  on the Internet”, Executive Director of the Financial and Economic Information Service at Interfax Information Services Group Yury Pogorely said.

PROBLEMS

Young people have greater trust in information from informal sources

“One big problem we see is that young people today are not watching TV, are not getting information through official media, are not reading the official press, and are getting information from social media, through telegram channels, and through some other online media. We are often asked by regional organizations about how to provide young people with information about various approaches and various successes, and how to consult with them”, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs Roman Kamaev said.

Access to energy facilities is restricted by law

“A regulation has come out indicating that access to, say, our facilities [RusHydro] is very limited [...] and that basically no pictures can be taken there [...] Of course, we take children and students there, and they are extremely interested”, Director of Corporate Communications at RusHydro Margarita Nagoga said.

SOLUTIONS

Determining the priorities of informational support

“The priority themes for 2019 are constant attention to the modernization of the fuel and energy sector based on the use of innovative technologies and, of course, saving fuel on transport and cost reduction as well as social elevators and mentoring”, Inyutsyn said.

Holding and promoting Open Days

“We are also holding Open Days at the enterprise with the Union of Mechanical Engineers. This year, 4,176 enterprises opened their doors to schoolchildren and their parents, for tours, and to promote working professions. More than 230,000 people took part in this programme”, Kamaev said.

“There is an idea of how to maximize social advertising. For example, we created the hashtag #BeAnEngineer and we want to promote a unified social company in Instagram, YouTube, and social media in order to attract young people to Open Doors”, Nadezhnaya Smena (Reliable Change) Charity Foundation Director Artem Korolev said.

Creating new platforms for a dialogue between the public and power engineering specialists – the #BrighterTogether Festival

“The media coverage of the #BrighterTogether Festival merits a rather serious assessment. In our opinion, the festival became a unifying principle for the entire fuel and energy industry and a real channel of communication between power engineering specialists and the public, between the regional authorities and the citizens of the country. We have already got more than 3 million citizens involved in this process”, Inyutsyn said.

“In 2018, a list of measures was approved to promote an energy-saving lifestyle among the people of the Volgograd Region [...] We have a total of 31 events, including the events of the #BrighterTogether Festival. We believe that in order to make the festival so bright and creative, we need bright and energetic people who are inspired by a common cause [...] In 2017, we integrated the main events of the festival into our region’s municipal districts and urban districts for the first time. We realized that people are interested in it and that they gladly take part in these events. In 2018, we tried to cover local government bodies on a larger scale. We held the #BrighterTogether Festival in almost all the city’s districts”, Volgograd Energy Efficiency Centre Deputy Director Irina Sokolova said.