Energy (National Technology Initiative)

2024: Approval of the roadmap for the development of technologies in the field of power

On February 28, 2024, the Russian government approved Decree No. 458-r, providing for the implementation of new initiatives to improve legislation and eliminate administrative barriers within the framework of the National Technology Initiative "Energy." We are talking about the development of technologies in the field of power.

In particular, additional measures will be proposed to eliminate legal restrictions for the development of new markets arising from the implementation of the Energy action plan. In addition, the interaction of the state and commercial organizations developing products for the relevant industry will be simplified. Another task is to strengthen the position of Russian organizations in the international market and stimulate the creation of new enterprises in the energy field.

Unsplash

Work will be carried out in a number of key areas. This is a revision of the norms for the functioning of power storage systems in the electric power industry; development of demand management mechanisms; removing barriers to the use of new energy technologies in apartment buildings; creation of conditions for the development of intellectual power in hard-to-reach and isolated areas.

In addition, it is planned to develop and test a methodology for assessing the impact of demand management on electric energy on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and forming recommendations for the use of demand management tools by participants. When implementing the projects, the Energy working group will develop and submit to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation the relevant concepts, including, among other things, a list of regulatory legal acts to be adopted or amended. In general, the program is designed for two stages: the first will be carried out in 2024-2025, and the second covers the period up to 2035.^[1]

2020: NTI Energy Legislative Roadmap Updated

On June 16, 2020, it became known that the Government of the Russian Federation approved^[2] updated "roadmap" of NTI Energy to improve legislation and eliminate administrative barriers. The action plan was updated with the organizational and technical support of RVC, which is the NTI Project Office.

The Roadmap provides for the consistent elimination of legislative barriers to the development of technologies and products in the energy industry, including the segment of intelligent distributed power, distribution networks, personal power and consumer services.

In particular, the road kata involves determining the conditions for pilot projects related to the integration of active energy complexes into the general energy system and improving the power supply to consumers through modern 'technologies. In addition, the use of electricity storage systems should be clarified, the status of power demand management aggregators and the peculiarities of using "smart contracts" for accounting and settlements in the power should be determined.

The updating of the legislative roadmap of Energy was technical in nature. When preparing the first version of the document, we did not take into account the complexity of generating and promoting regulatory initiatives in such a regulated industry as the electric power industry. Now we, together Ministry of Energy Russia with, have formed a more balanced work plan. In the content of the roadmap, it should be noted that in 2020 we are completing the launch of initiatives aimed at conducting regulatory experiments on testing modern business practices in the industry. Further, we will monitor the results of these experiments and prepare proposals for targeted regulatory models in the electric power industry, - comments Dmitry Kholkin, head of the NTI Energy legislative working group.

NTI Energy's market roadmap was approved in 2016. It is aimed at developing technologies in the electric power industry, creating products and markets to form an effective and convenient ecosystem of interaction between energy producers and consumers. According to the provisions of the roadmap, the basis of the power of the future will be multi-scale (from cities to households) integrated systems and services of intelligent power, built on an open grid architecture. Users of energy facilities should be able to connect and use the power system as easily as the Internet.

The goal of the roadmap is to achieve by 2035 the revenue of Russian companies in the global market of multi-scale complex systems and services of intelligent power of at least $40 billion per year, including taking market shares in priority segments: reliable and flexible distribution networks - 10-12%; intelligent distributed power - 3-6%; consumer services - 3-6% of the global market.

2019

NTI MPEI Competence Center began commissioning the Testbed Energy landfill

On November 29, 2019, RVC announced that the stage of commissioning special equipment had begun at the NTI Competence Center on the basis of MPEI "Technologies for the Transportation of Electricity and Distributed Smart Power Systems." The work is carried out as part of a project to develop the architecture of the Internet of Energy in order to implement the Energy action plan of the National Technology Initiative. Read more here.

Pilot projects

In May 2019, a regular meeting of the working group on the development and implementation of the roadmap of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) "Energy" was held. The event was attended by members of the working group, representatives of the NTI project office, energy companies and the expert industry community. The meeting was co-chaired by the Director of the Department of State Energy Policy of the Ministry of Energy of Russia, Deputy Co-Head of the Working Group Alexei Kulapin and Co-Head of the Working Group Oleg Grinko.

Speaking with a welcoming speech, Aleksey Kulapin reminded the participants that significant successes have already been achieved within the framework of the implementation of the NTI Energinet roadmap.

Five pilot projects aimed at the development of domestic complex systems and services of intellectual power and capable of giving a significant economic effect were selected and implemented. For some of them, in 2019 it is planned to get the first significant results. In addition, several more promising projects are in the works.

"The implementation of pilot projects is an important element of achieving the planned" roadmap "goal to ensure the leadership of Russian companies in the new high-tech markets of the world "power of the future. " In terms of individual positions, Russian developments are already included in the top best global startups. For example, projects to create a transaction platform - an element of the Internet of energy and a blockchain solution for IoT - received high marks in the international arena. I am sure this is only the beginning of a long journey, "said Alexey Kulapin.

Work is underway to improve legislation and eliminate administrative barriers in the direction of Energy, which will allow entities to enter the market in fundamentally new types of entrepreneurial activity with innovative business models.

The first result of this work was the adoption in March 2019 of a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, which will allow in a pilot mode to work out the mechanism for creating and developing demand management aggregators. A number of regulatory legal acts aimed at the development of active energy complexes in the country, power supply to isolated and remote territories, the use of systems for accumulating and issuing electricity to the network, consumer services based on distributed registers and smart contracts are under study.

To test new mechanisms, comprehensive pilot projects with the possibility of their further scaling are provided. Currently, working groups have been created for each area and specific projects are being worked out.

As part of the partnership development program between universities, scientific organizations and industrial partners, a number of NTI Competence Centers in the Energy direction have been created, as well as on the basis of the North-West CSR Foundation, an infrastructure center for the implementation of the roadmap.

At the same time, according to Alexei Kulapin, in the context of the rapid development of new technologies, in order to achieve the goals planned by the NTI Energy roadmap, today it is necessary to update it with an eye to implementing projects aimed at introducing digital solutions.

2018: "Internet of Energy" with open access

In Russia, despite the general energy efficiency, the low cost of generation is more than compensated by the expensive "capacity" - the cost of operating the distribution infrastructure. The final prices for the consumer are influenced by factors such as low consumption density, high cost of capital and construction and low capacity utilization. A large share of the industrial load, socially oriented policies, market imperfections and industry regulation lead to a constant increase in electricity prices for business and are gradually becoming a deterrent to the development of the country's economy, according to the report "Digital Transition in the Electric Power Industry of Russia" by the Center for Strategic Research (CSR). In addition, most of the existing infrastructure is expected to reach service life limits in 2020-2025.

At the same time, priority industrial sectors (for example, the production of electricity storage systems) are just beginning to form with a noticeable lag behind the leaders of the global market. In addition to the lack of its own technologies, the development of new power in the country is constrained by the lack of the necessary legal and technical regulation to bring new products to the market and implement new business models, according to the roadmap approved by the government to improve legislation and eliminate administrative barriers of NTI Energinet.

Main article: Internet Energy (MicroGrid) Small Distributed power

2017: Smart Energy Market Development Events to 2035

The Presidential Council for Modernization and Innovative Economic Development approved the EnergyNet roadmap in early 2017. The document provides for measures to develop the smart energy market until 2035 and was created as part of the project of the National Technological Initiative, implemented on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document was created under the leadership of First Deputy Minister of Power Alexei Teksler and managing partner of Bright Capital Boris Ryabov^[3]

By EnergyNet, the authors of the document mean the market for equipment, software, engineering and service services for multi-scale complex systems and services of intelligent power. "The best metaphor for describing the market is Internet energy - an ecosystem of energy producers and consumers who seamlessly integrate into the common infrastructure and exchange energy," the roadmap says.

What is happening in the global energy market

The power market is undergoing significant technological changes. The power of the new structure will be based on multi-scale (from cities to households) complex systems and services of intellectual power built on an open network architecture.

Active consumers, owners of distributed energy facilities (including mobile), users of devices with a controlled load should also be able to simply connect and use the power system as it happens in the case of using the Internet. This will require the creation of new cyber-physical energy conversion and switching devices, intelligent control systems, open service platforms, Internet of Things technologies, flexible and dynamic energy markets.

In terms of energy technologies, we are talking about small and microgeneration, energy storage, a wide range of devices with an adjustable load (up to a "smart" refrigerator), and electric transport. The large-scale appearance of distributed energy facilities on their basis will lead to the transformation of the architecture of power systems - they will become fractal, "cellular," like the Internet or cellular telephony.

In terms of information technology, many technologies and solutions are formed within the framework of initiatives focused on the transition to cyber-physical devices: "energy routers," distributed (multi-agent) management systems, the Internet of Things, platform-oriented solutions, and systems for managing the life cycle of production systems. In terms of social technologies, aggregation services will actively appear, developing investment, local energy markets, application marketplaces for services, pricing close to real time.

A fundamental issue in creating solutions for new power will be the use of an open architecture of intelligent power systems, which makes it "easy" to integrate manufacturers and consumers of various types, service providers into common energy exchange systems. In addition, the use of the open architecture concept will allow the formation of various cooperation options for hardware and software manufacturers.

"Window of opportunity" for Russian companies

Russia in this area has good prerequisites for occupying significant positions in global markets. We are talking about scientific groundwork, specialized startups, developed infrastructure and mechanisms for supporting innovative companies.

The authors of the roadmap identify three segments in the EnergyNet market: reliable and flexible distribution networks, intelligent distributed power and consumer services. The object area of ​ ​ the roadmap is limited to the development of systems and services at the level of distributed generation (including renewable energy sources) voltage levels of 110 kV and below, distribution networks and consumption management for end consumers.

In the new service segments, not existing players in the market have a competitive advantage, but players with competence in IoT technologies - in particular, telecommunications companies and IT companies. These companies are beginning to occupy a leading position in new niches and take a share of the business from traditional energy companies. As IoT technologies dramatically simplify the integration of solutions and application development, turning electronic and mechanical components of the system into an interchangeable commodity, margin and added value will move to developers of algorithms and applications capable of solving specific client problems and creating a unique business model for it.

In particular, telecommunications companies have been effectively competing for segments that used to belong to the energy sector for several years. Almost all major telecommunications operators have created their own IoT platform, on the basis of which they have built a product chain of energy products and services. The conservatism of traditional energy companies makes it difficult for them to compete with new players who have great experience and potential to work in a market environment.

For Russian companies, this situation opens a "window of opportunity." The situation when the competitive advantage is determined by the algorithms of software applications and business models is favorable for Russian companies, since there is a "success story" and not "traditional players" can enter the market, but high-tech competitive companies from the IT and telecommunications sectors, if necessary, concluding partnerships with "traditional" power engineers.

In addition, new technologies create competitive advantages for promoting traditional technologies to the global market, where Russia already has a strong position. Although the impetus for the development of the "Internet of Energy" in Europe, first of all, is the development of "green "power, the authors of the roadmap emphasize that it would be a mistake to believe that renewable power is the main beneficiary of the "Internet of Energy" technology.

Strategic interest for Russia

Technologies that allow managing loads equally have a positive effect on other types of generation, in particular, strategies in the field of "Internet energy" can be built in conjunction with almost any type of generation, which can ensure the promotion of nuclear generation and gas generation to the market. These strategies are attractive to Russian players, as they strengthen the positions of those segments where Russia has historically developed competitive advantages (unlike renewable power, where Russia has no objective advantages and where a large number of technologies are already protected by patents).

In addition, from the point of view of national security for Russia, the main challenge in the power is the fact that in Northeast Asia, the efforts of Japan, Korea and China are forming a new pole for generating public wealth, potentially comparable to the entire existing world economy. The basis of this pole will be neo-industrialization, new forms of urbanization and retooling of territories, the use of technologies friendly to nature. Russia can preserve sovereignty only by becoming a subject of the formation of a new type of economic pole. If it is impossible to take such a position, the Russian Far East and Siberia will be assigned the function of a peripheral raw material appendage to serve the economies of the countries of Northeast Asia.

Market forecasts

The authors of the roadmap divide the EnergyNet market into three segments. The Reliable and Flexible Distribution Network segment includes a set of solutions that ensure efficient and reliable operation of the distribution network, open and adaptive to new facilities and market participants. The segment "Intelligent Distributed power" is a set of solutions that ensure integration into power systems and the joint operation of distributed generation, drives, load control tools, as well as ensure the operation of various types of aggregators of distributed power facilities. Finally, the Consumer Services segment includes a set of solutions that provide end consumers with customized energy supply and engineering infrastructure management services (including autonomous energy sources).

In Russia, the "reliable and flexible networks" segment will grow from $200 million in 2014 to $15 billion in 2035, the "intelligent distributed power" segment - from $25 million to $14 billion, the "consumer services" segment - from $790 million to $11.7 billion.

In total, the volume of Russian producers of the EnergyNet market will grow from $1.125 billion in 2014 to $40.7 billion in 2035, the share of Russian producers from the market of "target countries" (a group of countries allocated in the roadmap) over the same period will increase from less than 1% to 5.3%.

Notes