The event organized by NP «NTS UES» was attended by the leading scientists, specialists in energy engineering and representatives of the largest Russian energy companies. Evgeniia Sukhareva, professor at the National Research University «Moscow Power Engineering Institute» (MEI), Deputy Chairperson of the Section «Economy, Management and Staff Training for Energy Industry» of NP «NTS UES», Doctor of Economics, is of the opinion that the Russian energy system is standing on the verge of the sixth pattern that is mainly characterized by a wide spread of RES and green energy, development of the distributed generation and small energy, introduction of digital technologies and intelligence systems, following the principles of sustainable development, preserving technological sovereignty and active import substitution .

In the opinion of Andrey Kashirsky, Head of the Analytical Department of «Proryv» JSC, the nuclear energy is one of the green energy types the generation growth of which could be provided for by the Russian energy industry within the relatively short time frames. The nuclear energy industry has a number of advantages as compared to the solar and wind energy, the expert noted, and besides, this is a traditionally well-developed area in Russia. Andrey Kashirsky considers that one of such advantages is a higher installed capacity use factor and a longer service life of the nuclear energy facilities as compared to the photovoltaics and wind energy industry. «This means that to generate the same volume of electric energy in perspective of more than thirty years, we should build much more RES facilities than NPPs. Moreover, despite the fact that RES facilities consume no fuel, they need the tremendous amount of materials necessary for their construction», underlined Andrey Kashirsky. However, the nuclear energy competitive power in the future depends directly on solving the issues related to security of such facilities, he stated.

In the opinion of Vladimir Gribin, Head of the Steam and Gas Turbines of the National Research University «Moscow Power Engineering Institute» (MEI), Rosenergoatom is currently one of the world leaders in the development and commissioning of nuclear power plants. In 2022–2024, under the Russian projects, NPPs with the total capacity of 2.2 GW per year will be placed into operation abroad, and in Russia NPPs with a capacity of 1.3 GW will be commissioned annually. For the period from 2025 to 2030, the NPPs with the total capacity of 2.5 GW will be annually placed into operation in our country. According to the forecasts of Viktor Molodyuk, First Deputy Chairperson of NP «NTS UES», in the nearest future, the share of nuclear energy in the energy balance will grow from 20% to 25%.

Using digital technologies in the energy engineering is another relevant industry development trend, and such technologies are capable of being widely used for solving both tactical and strategic tasks. For example, a quite true perspective is adaptation of the face ID technology to the development of the algorithm for finding and determining defects and damages of power transformers, said Aleksandr Khrennikov, professor, Head of the Department for Scientific and Technical Cooperation and Scientific and Technical Information of JSC «FGC UES Scientific and Technical Centre» of Rosseti PJSC, the Chairperson of the section of NP «NTS UES». As he said, the appropriate algorithm has already been created. «The work is not completed yet, we are in process. Now we are developing the software and are preparing to receive interim results», the speaker explained.

Pavel Litvinov, the expert of RNC SIGRE, thinks that the artificial intelligence technologies and AI-based solutions will become the absolute leader of changes in the next five years. As applicable to the electric energy industry, they can be used, for example, for developing of technologies of predictive forecasting of the equipment condition and accidents prevention, as well as for the development of new management and energy saving strategies. However, Pavel Litvinov warns that the information technologies may have both positive and adverse effect on the power supply reliability. «The advantages include expansion of monitoring, diagnostics, forecasting, planning, designing, decision-making support and automation capabilities. The disadvantages are growth of the number of hacker attacks, cases of unauthorized access to control centers, virus infection of control systems», he explained.

The available database on the current condition of energy facilities and consumption of the energy generated by them is one of prerequisites for the reasonable forecast of energy consumption volumes, which, as the overwhelming majority of experts think, will only grow. However, for instance, there is no such base in hydro energy industry, and creation thereof in the near future remains doubtful, underlined Mikhail Tyagunov, professor of National Research University «Moscow Power Engineering Institute” (MEI), Chairperson of the section of NP «NTS UES».

In the opinion of the round-table participants, development of distributed generation is another current trend of the modern Russian energy engineering. On the one hand, the distributed energy facilitates flexibility, vitality and energy security of the power supply systems of especially responsible consumers and isolated energy systems, notes Pavel Ilyushin, the Head of the Center of Smart Electric Systems and Distributed Energy of FSBIS «Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences», Chairperson of the section of NP «NTS UES», Doctor of Engineering. Distributed generation is crucially important for the regions in the decentralized power supply zone, that is without any connection with the Russian UES, which include the regions of the Far East, Extreme North, Siberia and Altai, where the population is over 20 million people, as well as for the uninterrupted power supply of the critical enterprises, including those fulfilling the state defense order. On the other hand, the mass spread of the distributed generation changes the game rules on the electric power market, noted Ruslan Adamokov, Director for Development of Tatenergo JSC, an Advisor to the General Director of MPEI Engineering Center, Chairperson of the section «Development, Operation and Retrofitting» of NP «NTS UES», Candidate of Economic Sciences. «In accordance with the applicable standards, holders of the «generators» exceeding 25 MW should sell all generated energy on the wholesale market. However, more and more such plants are leaving the wholesale market by hook or by crook or do not enter it at all, preferring to work for themselves and to get electric energy from own facilities at much lower cost than on the wholesale market», clarified Ruslan Adamokov. According to his data, over 10 years the share of such plants has considerably grown: if in 2014, the generators with the total capacity of 900 MW were operating outside the wholesale market, in 2024 this volume has already reached 5.6 GW. Yury Kalabin, Head of the Strategic Development Department of Rosseti PJSC, agrees that «Distributed generation is an objective process, but «generators» cheat, use the available reserve instead of building new facilities».

«Plant leaving and failure to sell the energy generated on the wholesale market may result in degradation of the unified energy system and pose a threat to its existence. The wholesale market is loaded with payments having no direct relation to the cost of electric energy. When the consumers take energy off the wholesale market, such payments are distributed among the remaining participants. Accordingly, the energy cost grows for those who buy electricity on the wholesale market. As it is impossible to cancel such mandatory payments simultaneously, measures should be taken for all market players to pay them in equal parts», – Ruslan Adamokov considers.

In his opinion, such measures include improvement of the rules for issue by «generators» of confirmations on their not being subject to the wholesale market rules, introduction of proportional fines for the mala fide organizations that exceed multiply the amount of benefit from illegal exit from the wholesale market, as well as making amendments to FZ-35 «On Electric Energy» that reduce the generation capacity indicator threshold from the current 25 MW to 5 MW.

The Russian energy industry can not be developed without implementing new technologies and substituting importation of critically important component parts, the round-table participants noted. In this regard, reverse engineering is of the utmost importance, as it enables to understand the technology used in the imported products and to apply the same for the developments of own products, explained Sergey Podgorny, Line Manager of the Technical Development Agency (TDA). However, today the reverse engineering is hindered by shortage of skilled personnel. To solve this problem, the TDA has developed four programs of the reverse engineering advanced training: in machine engineering, instrument-making industry, chemical industry and for the executive staff. Training under such program will make it possible for the enterprises to obtain specialized skills and knowledge for the independent execution of the reverse engineering projects. TDA partners are Tomsk State University, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET) and the Engineering Center of Digital Machine Engineering Technologies.

To date, more than 100 employees have undergone training, and, according to the results of their polls, the training satisfaction level is 85%. The need for reverse engineering skills, especially in the Fuel and Energy Complex, is confirmed by statistics. According to the data provided by Sergey Podgorny, today, 31 projects with the total financing amount of more than 1.5 billion rubles are being implemented in Russia with the use of State support measures. The speaker is sure that the number of such requests will grow in the near future.