About events

Sergey Voronkov, President of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs, General Director of ExpoForum International, ranked in TOP 10 of the rating «The Most Influential People in MICE-2023».

The rating was aimed at identifying and public recognizing of the industry professionals, having positive impact on the industry of business and corporate events in the Russian Federation.

In 2024, along with the «popular» voting, voting of the board of MICE-panel was additionally held, which board consisted of respectful representatives of the business tourism industry, mass media and the branch community. The board assessed nominees both on the basis of own professional experience and by presentations submitted to Organizers.

It is worth reminding that Sergey Voronkov became the winner of «The Most Influential People in MICE» in 2023 and 2022.

The public and expert voting results are published on the website www.top50mice.ru.

The importance of introducing digital technologies into the green energy sector was discussed by experts at the session «Application of Digital Solutions for RES».

The session participants explained that digitalization in the field of renewable energy sources may include introduction of the system of energy origin certification which are usually circulated in the electronic format.

Oleg Barkin, a member of the Management Board of NP Market Union Association, told that the energy origin certificates is a globally recognized instrument for recording, transferring and using by interested consumers of the rights related to positive environmental impacts of the renewable generation. The energy origin certificate actually confirms that it was generated on the generation facility based on the renewable energy. Such certificates are fully digital goods easy to handle. Certificates may be bought and sold.

According to Oleg Barkin, the world markets of certificates have been growing for about 20 years already. For 2022, over 1,050 billion kWh of net energy was certified only within four major certification systems.

The development of the system for certification of net energy in Russia, including taking into account orientation towards cooperation with Asian and Oriental countries is taking on ever greater importance in this context. The Russian system for certification of electrical energy origin is one of the tools for achieving the task of carbon neutrality of the Russian economy, Oleg Barkin said.

The Russian certification system started functioning since February of this year, the expert added. The operator of the said system is already holding negotiations on possible sale of the energy origin certificates on exchanges.

Moreover, digital solutions are actively applied in forecasting of weather that affects functioning of the facilities based on the renewable energy sources.

Evgenii Ganshin, Business Development Director of «Yandex Weather» service, told that the global weather models for the whole world, including Canadian, Japanese and European ones, are often taken as an initial point for weather forecasting.

Since 2015, the «Yandex Weather» team has been going beyond the global models’ data and is developing its own forecast of weather and climatic data with a higher resolution, by using computer-aided instruction and enriching the forecast with the data obtained from radars, satellites, weather stations and user reports. Specific parameters with higher resolution are also studied in detail for business.

«We start cooperating with participants of the Russian renewable energy market in the field of making energy generation models and creating a more accurate forecast of the upper wind. We already have a number of foreign partners, and now we are ready for cooperation in Russia», said Evgenii Ganshin.

Digital solutions are also applied in such area as energy storage. The experience of that kind was described by Natalya Mayer, General Director of Atomenergosbyt JSC. According to her, the company has already implemented digital control over the battery energy storage systems.

Atomenergosbyt uses the battery energy storage systems of container type as a tool of commercial dispatching. When a number of such installations were placed in operation, it became clear that the digital system is necessary for monitoring and control of them. As a result, Atomenergosbyt has created its own platform to carry out all these functions, which enabled to reduce labor efforts and get an instrument for on-line control and prompt response.

The session was attended by representatives of Digital Energy Association, Atomenergosbyt JSC, Renewable Energy Development Association, NP Market Union Association, SOLTECH LLC, National Bureau of Informatization JSC and Yandex Weather.

The prospects of establishing a virtual power plant in Russia were discussed by the participants of the session «Application of Digital Solutions in RES» within RIEF-2024.

As was stated by Ekaterina Baibakova, a representative of Digital Energy Association, a virtual power plant (VPP) consists of the mixed decentralized generation sources, for example, of photo elements, wind turbines or hydro-electric power plants connected by the central control system. This system makes it possible for the users to buy or sell electric energy on the market.

Baibakova noted that the use of such plants promotes reliability of power supply where the energy is received from renewable sources that are notable for instability. The global VPP market is currently experiencing explosive growth: in 2023 its volume was 1.6 million dollars, and it is expected to reach 6.6 million dollars by 2030.

The session participants have taken interest in the opportunity to create a virtual power plant in Russia. In the experts’ opinion, under certain conditions, such plant may also be made in RF. In its turn, Digital Energy Association can act as a uniform expert platform for discussing the issues related to the development of the virtual power plant in Russia.

Today, on April 25, Sergey Georgievich Voronkov has addressed the RF President Vladimir Putin. In his speech, the President of the RUEF (Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs) expressed his gratitude to Vladimir Vladimirovich for the assignment that he made earlier on elaboration of additional measures to provide support of the convention and exhibition industry. Over this period, the industry development strategy and the roadmap up to 2030, standards, state statistics and many other things have already been approved.

In this regard, Sergey Georgievich applied with two initiatives, namely:

– Support of exhibition participation for the small and medium business (SMB) representatives.

To date, the funding limits for exhibition participation, including the federal one, have been materially reduced since 2021. To solve this issue, it is worth to consider a possibility to develop and adopt a single mechanism of compensation of not less than 50% expenses for participation in the Russian exhibitions and conventions for supporting small and medium business.

– Introducing into the State Duma of a draft law «On Exhibition and Convention Activities».

This initiative will enable to systematize the activities and to put in order over 40 industry-based regulations that overlap and contradict each other, to fix the conceptual framework, to determine powers of public authorities, to create conditions, incentives and opportunities for investors in construction of the necessary complexes which are available only in 24 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Vladimirovich supported the proposals articulated by Sergey Voronkov. Additional comments were provided by Denis Valentinovich Manturov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, who promised to look into ways to enable subsidizing of SMB for taking part in the Russian exhibition in a manner similar to the functioning REC mechanism, and to consider the draft law submitted to the RF Ministry of Industry and Trade at the Interagency Working Group.

The issues of the information cryptoprotection tools (ICPT) being integrated into the metering device systems were discussed by the experts at the round-table discussion «Safe and Efficient Energy Accounting. Exchange of Experience in Introduction and Operation of Smart Energy Metering Systems».

A pilot project for the use of the energy consumption Data Acquisition and Transmission Devices (DATD) with the installed ICPT that had been implemented in Kuban by Rosseti PJSC demonstrated successful results. This was announced by Denis Koval, Head of the Committee of INSIST ENERGO Association, Chief Design Officer of NPO MIR.

According to him, during testing it was found out that the use of the ICPT increases the data collection time by 1.9 times without the use of a digital signature and approximately by 10 times with the use thereof, however, even such values are not critical and may be considered acceptable, as it is a matter of a few seconds. ICPTs also cause more than 30% increase in traffic. Currently, we are preparing for the second stage of the pilot project in order to check up the technology and minimize the costs, Denis Koval noted.

ICPT tests conducted by Inter RAO UES appeared to be effective as well, reported Dmitry Zaretsky, General Director of NTC Nartis. Just like Mir, Nartis is a manufacturer of DATD, as well as of gateways and other equipment for power grids. Dmitry Zaretsky reminded that since 2022 all information computer complexes of an electric installation should be equipped with ICPT, however, he noted that there were ongoing discussions on whether such tools should be installed in consumers’ metering devices or it is sufficient to have them on higher system levels.

Representatives of ICPT manufacturing companies, that is Infotecs, С-Terra, Eleron, provided detailed information on the specifics of their products. The areas of concern in this field include receipt of licenses for repair of DATD with ICPT, and not only for the manufacture (in different cases different requirements are applied to personnel), insignificant device calibration interval that needs to be increased, an unsatisfying import substitution level, meaning that ICPT manufacture using domestic components is much more costly than using foreign ones, which causes rise in price of the devices. As it turned out, no ICPT unification, that was inquired by some participants of the round-table discussion, is expected: the sales companies need to select any of the licensed manufactures for making systems based on their solutions.

The present and the past of the utility infrastructure were discussed by representatives of public authorities, professional associations and branch enterprises at the round-table discussion «Modernization of the Housing and Utilities Infrastructure in Cities. Mechanisms. Technologies. Opportunities».

Development and modernization of the utility infrastructure to assure quality of the utility services is now one of the RF strategic areas. In his February Address to the Federal Assembly the President Vladimir Putin set the task to ramp up modernization of this infrastructure, having said that up to 2030, 4.5 trillion rubles will be allocated for these goals, including private investments.

The utility infrastructure modernization program is already developed. However, the extreme deterioration of the housing sector and utility networks is one of the main problems of the housing and utilities sector preventing from a powerful leap forward.

«The RF utility infrastructure, basically heat supply and electric power supply, are characterized by heavy wear», says Pavel Kachkaev, First Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing.

He provides the data of the Ministry of Construction, according to which almost 42% of networks, that is nearly 400 thousand km, need to be replaced.

«Utility systems have grown obsolete and fail to comply with modern environmental standards. Insufficiency, wear and tear or lack of the surface waters transport system in the majority of cities poses direct threat to people’s health and property, as well as to the country’s economy», Olga Serdyuk, Deputy Executive Director of the Association of Utility Companies «Unified Housing and Utilities Council», estimates the current situation.

The population’s fear relating to utility accidents goes right after the fear of terrorists. This follows from the survey cited as an example by Olga Serdyuk.

«As it turned out, people are afraid of terrorists most of all, the third place is occupied by mice and rodents, and utility companies are in-between. So, we are somewhere between terrorists and rodents», she smiles.

In general, the state provides for big investments for modernization of the housing and utilities sector. Maria Sinichich, Director of the Department of Integral Territorial Development of the Ministry of Construction Industry, Housing and Utilities Sector of the Russian Federation, tells about an aggregate amount of 1 trillion rubles, that includes the entire package of measures – seven publicly funded infrastructure loans and additional proposals on modernization of the utility infrastructure (since 2025, 150 billion rubles will be provided in the budget, an option of indirect subsidizing is also under consideration).

But, as the industry representatives consider, the program of utility infrastructure modernization will not be implemented without raising private investments. However, today the largest owners of the utility infrastructure are the state and municipalities, and private investors who are desperately needed by the public utilities are not actually involved in this sphere.

This problem was outlined by Andrey Maksimov, General Director of the Union of the Russian Cities. According to him, the actual network upgrading rate is planned at about 2% per year. Meanwhile, 3% per year are required just to maintain their technical condition, the strategic documents provide for 5% per year.

«We won’t go far without these 5%! If we do not allocate them, no business will ever undertake this», he said.

Olga Serdyuk believes that only an integrated approach may be the way out.

«To have successful results in the long run, we have to provide for the project integration, that is to fund comprehensive programs and not just their elements. Along with that it is necessary to prioritize the projects bringing maximum effects; to enhance competency of the technical and organizational decisions taken; to provide flexible instruments for funding and implementing the program», she says.

Olga Serdyuk is of the opinion that first of all it is necessary to ensure implementation of projects aimed to enhance reliability and sustainability and of those having maximum economic effects. It is essential to improve the quality of resource supply schemes by ensuring their digital implementation, and, due to digitalization, to enhance control over the execution quality of modernization schemes and programs. In this case, budgetary funding should be combined with the funds of the investors and bank financing, by applying various mechanisms of the public private partnership.

«All accidents that happened this and last year are the consequences of those decisions that were taken or failed to be taken 5–6 years ago. Therefore, we should initially elaborate the rules of the long-term programs so that municipalities and all market participants could understand the long-term prospects, and make more transparent the rules for the industry enterprises’ participation in the programs on utility infrastructure modernization, so that everyone could plan financing of such participation», concludes Olga Serdyuk.

This number was named by Maria Sinichich, Director of the Department of Integral Territorial Development of the Ministry of Construction Industry, Housing and Utilities Sector of the Russian Federation, at the round-table discussion «Modernization of the Housing and Utilities Infrastructure in Cities. Mechanisms. Technologies. Opportunities».

«The whole range of measures – seven basic tools of the infrastructure menu (publicly funded infrastructure loans) plus additional proposals on modernization of the utility infrastructure (since 2025, 150 billion rubles will be provided in the budget, an option of indirect subsidizing is also under consideration) – will in the aggregate make it possible to raise over 1 trillion rubles for the housing and communal sector to implement the plans on its modernization that we are facing», said Maria Sinichich.

Such accurate data were announced for the first time. This was confirmed by Andrey Maksimov, General Director of the Union of the Russian Cities.

«We have not seen such a large-scale support of the utility infrastructure for many years. Now we are making a great leap forward, and these details will help us understand the mechanisms and forms of the further way», he noted.

The Russian energy industry development trend will be determined at the venue of the XII Russian International Energy Forum. The selected trends include enhancing the industry reliability, readiness for the high domestic demand and possibility of green energy. This was outlined by participants of the Plenary Session «Development of the Russian Energy in Present-Day Conditions.

«The Energy Forum has raised essential issues, has given modern conditions and challenges for the energy industry. I hope, that during the event days the participants of sessions and round-table discussions will get answers to the questions raised and will be able to suggest solutions on all aspects included in the program», told Aleksei Zhikharev, Director of the Association for Development of Renewable Power Engineering, General Director of ENSOLVE.

Konstantin Simonov, General Director of the National Energy Security Fund, agrees that it is necessary to discuss the industry challenges. «The current situation is quite curious, and it will be helpful to have an honest talk about the problems. We tried to discuss many industry subjects at the last Plenary Session» commented Konstantin Simonov. According to him, the global issues of the industry are related to investments and import substitution. «We have managed to re-direct the flow to the domestic market owing to decline in the electric energy export. However, it is crucial to understand whether the industry is ready to satisfy the growing demand for the electric energy, if we still have high economic growth rates», Konstantin Simonov gives his reasons. He noted that in the course of the Plenary Session an important discussion took place between energy sector industrialists and the lawmakers. They also managed to discuss the issue of electric power tariffs growth.

The opportunities of the Russian International Energy Forum as an efficient platform for law making activities were mentioned by Boris Gladkikh, the Deputy of the State Duma of the RF Federal Assembly, a member of the State Duma Energy Committee. «There is a number of things that we have to overcome from the point of view of understanding, industry response, legislative regulation. We have been moving to adoption of the law about 3–5 years. Owing to such venues we notify of disputable matters for the legislative and executive authorities, receive feedback of the industry and use the information in our work», commented the member of parliament. According to him, the effect of the event is expressed in adjustment of the course of legislative solutions or impulses for the industry. «The Forum venue is a kind of a club providing a potential of offers, ideas and criticism», believes Boris Gladkikh. As he explained, the most critical issue in the industry regulation is related to the state’s pivot towards consolidation and growing reliability of the heat supply market. «It is of the utmost importance that the industry should be reliable, that the tariffs should not grow by leaps and bounds, but more transparency and quality for a consumer should appear. All this must be publicly discussed for the sake of our citizens», summarizes Boris Gladkikh. The deputy informed that any further industry reforms and law-making activities were connected with the aspects of reliability and safety of the country’s utility complex. Subsequently, changes will affect the gas supply industry as well.

Prospects of the green energy development in Russia were separately touched upon in a conversation with journalists. «As I estimate, they are very good», said Aleksei Zhikharev. He underlined that the last is particularly topical in the context of the sanction restrictions. «In this regard, the green energy sector wins as the relevant manufacturing industry has been created in RF for 10 years», clarified Aleksei Zhikharev. According to his estimates, it is already now that the existing energy system has about 6 GW of green generation, and about 10–11 GW more will appear up to 2035.

«These are good investment signals towards both the manufacturing sector and generation and for third-party companies providing consulting, financial and engineering services», believes Aleksei Zhikharev.

Konstantin Simonov sticks to a more cautious approach to the alternative energy sources. «I am the long-time supporter of the traditional energy in Russia and I am confident that we should not artificially transfer to the alternative energy sources just for the sake of fashion. But if the renewable energy sector is able to demonstrate efficiency, if it is cost-effectively, of course, we should try, especially since there are areas in short supply», he shared his opinion.

As was clarified by Aleksei Zhikharev, in some regions, for example, in Siberia, electrical shortage is being formed indeed. Here, the renewable energy may become a solution of choice, as the construction cycle of green electric power plant is shorter than that of traditional energy sector (about 2 years), and it is cheaper. According to the speaker’s estimates, the green energy is twice as cheaper as that generated by a coal plant. The demand in the renewable energy sector is expected to be at the level of 5 GW.

The Russian energy sector continues to develop despite any challenges which is proved by high-tech developments featured at the International Specialized Exhibition «Energy and Electrical Engineering».

Many exhibits are essential to ensure uninterrupted operation of power engineering facilities, which is vitally important for all Russian citizens. These may include an electric power facilities automation system made by Prosoft-System, that makes it possible to monitor what is happening at a site: real parameters, voltage and temperature currents are reflected.

The stand features the results of the company’s activities on improvement of its product, a multifunctional controller ARIS-11ххЖ being one of the system elements. The predecessor thereof is nearly twice as large. Besides, a metal-enclosed server that screens the equipment off magnetic fields at the power engineering facilities was presented as an exhibit.

PLC Technology is also engaged in ensuring operation of the automated systems at the power engineering facilities. At the exhibition, the company has presented the stands with the cable lines monitoring system, a digital sub-station stand, as well as new rack-mounted ironwork commutators with an enhanced data transmission rate.

Matrix company demonstrated a system solution that enables to monitor all metering devices powered by substation, and, along with that, a modified line of smart energy meters. The meter body includes replaceable communications modules enabling adaptable use of communication channels. The Matrix exhibit makes it possible to upgrade the power systems using cutting-edge removable communications modules, including with a combined data transmission technology G3-Hybrid PLC+RF. In this case, the power system will be in full conformity with all parameters of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No.890.

The data acquisition and transmission device U325K showed by Pik-Progress is also able to aggregate readings from many meters. The device is capable of collecting readings from electric energy, water and gas meters. U325K provides for «the minimum required set of capabilities to work with discrete objects», the representative of Pik-Progress explains.

Another participant of the exhibition, Radar MMS, has arranged as many as several expositions within its stand. Two sections are full of a variety of sensors assembled by Radar MMS in Russia. Some of them monitor the wind speed, others, when affixed to an unmanned aerial vehicle are capable of identifying a metal ore deposit. The exhibits also include an unmanned aircraft BVS VT-45 with a capacity of 10 kg, that enables to carry out monitoring, geological exploration, search and rescue operations.

The developers have also presented a sensor that exceeded capabilities of the legendary import analogue. A newly-developed product is able not only to measure current intensity and direction, but also the wire sagging angle or, for example, to determine whether there is an ice layer on it. And together with the sensor of meteorological parameters they form a comprehensive monitoring system of the medium voltage line. Upon expiry of one year after installation, there will be sufficient data for predictive analytics of the real equipment condition.

A curious exhibit item can be found on the stand of DMT. It has brought a video recorder DMT-EX-MB and other models to the Exhibition «Energy and Electrical Engineering», among which there is also an explosion-proof one. It can record what is happening in the explosion hazardous zones, where there is a gas leakage, for instance. DMT-EX-2 will definitely not spark, which can cause an accident. The company development may function under extreme conditions, fixing legally relevant information owing to high-quality video and sound recording. A built-in battery allows to do so for up to 17 hours on a single charge.

Berkana company is able to surprise a visitor with electrical cabinets KAZ COM made of composite alloy. The material combines the properties of metal and plastics: durability, nonflammability, immunity to temperature drops, corrosion resistance, lightness, electrical transparency. For Russia it is a rather innovative material, though it has already superseded other materials all around the world. The service life is 30 years.

The stand of Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University «LETI» named after V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) features the working results of the developments made within the program of strategic academic leadership «Priority-2030». In particular, visitors can see a sample of the uninterruptible power supply unit based on the modern SiC-ECB, that is notable for the fact that it is integrated directly into the network and, in case of a breakage, immediately powers up all devices connected to the switchboard. The device functions for a long time with the power output of up to 10 kW, for a short period of time (5–10 minutes) – up to 30 kW. It can be connected to the module of lithium-ion batteries and supply network voltage. The network pick-up time is about 20 microseconds, that is 1 oscillation period.

Besides, at its stand «LETI» presented a selection of minerals and a magnetic and impulse installation. Using the electromagnetic impulse it can act mechanically upon metal, transform it for a plug or reinforced the cutting tool. As with the uninterruptible power supply unit, this installation already has a commercial user, and several items were manufactured. Both devices are expected to be put into full-scale production in the future.

At the neighboring stand, Terra Elektro is demonstrating a battery energy storage system with a capacity of 100 kW. It is designed to accumulate and store energy, giving it to the network or to load with the purpose of maintaining functioning of the power supply system. Application thereof makes it possible to lower the voltage fluctuations of the power network and to reduce the risk of power consumption due to excluding peak loads on the power source. The system can be charged at night in order to use a more beneficial tariff. The energy storage device will be useful both in the systems for power supply of industrial facilities, residential houses and office buildings, and at the self-powered facilities.

This development will help not only to raise network capacity and reliability but also to reduce electricity costs. Thanks to such devices the electrical energy becomes storable and portable thus changing the balance of simultaneous processes of generation and consumption. These systems are assessed as a «rapidly developing class of high-tech devices that open crucially new opportunities for development of electric power engineering».