SOLAR POWER GENERATION IN RUSSIA INCREASED BY OVER 35 % IN 2018
Renewable energy sources are developing in the regions of Russia with the highest energy potential and where introducing them will be economically efficient
“It includes, first of all, technologically isolated Northern territories of Siberia (Yakutia, Kamchatka, Buryatia), where power generation by itself is much more expensive that in the energy system due to high costs of expensive diesel generation. The costs of resources can be decreased with use of renewable energy sources”, informed Head of the Unit for tariff regulation of the wholesale electric power market, FAS Department for Regulating the Electric Power Industry, Svetlana Bagdantseva, at the 18th ERRA Energy Investment and Regulation Conference.
She said that wind generation increased by 69.2 %.
In her report, focused, in particular, on the role of the antimonopoly regulator in developing green power generation in Russia, FAS representative highlighted the tools used to control equal conditions for all market participants and preventing discrimination.
Svetlana Bagdantseva informed about a mechanism used in Russia to stimulate investments in power generation based on renewable energy sources. In includes payment for facilities capacity under the capacity supply contracts.
Other ways to support retail generation based on renewable energy sources are:
- Partial compensation the costs for technological connection of generation facilities based on renewable energy sources to networks;
- The norms on mandatory priority purchasing of electric power from RES facilities to compensate up to 5% network losses.
“Another stimulating measure currently under consideration is adopting a law on sale of electric power generated using renewable energy sources by the owner to the electric power system”, added Svetlana Bagdantseva.
The representatives of FAS Department for Regulating the Electric Power Industryalso said that “Russia is actively implementing digital processes in all spheres of the economy. The electric power industry is very attractive to this purpose. There is, for instance, a long-term programme for innovative development of the electric grid complex until 2025. It includes a transition to smart registration systems, improving the infrastructure for electric power transport and other innovative projects based on new technologies”.
The participants emphasized an advantage of the benchmarking tariff regulation model built on a broad analysis of big data, including use of information systems to exchange data between facilities on the energy markets between different countries – ERRA members.
Svetlana Bagdantseva was a speaker at the panel discussion on “Decentralizing the energy sector”.
ERRA Conference took place on 23-24 September in Riga, Latvia and brought together representatives from Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Russia.