RTF participates in the Rugrids-Electro 2015 International Electric Power Forum
On October 20-21, RTF participated in the Rugrids-Electro 2015 International Electric Power Forum. During the forum, CEOs of Russian energy companies, national funds and agencies, and government structures shared their opinions on the current situation and prospective development.
Dominique Fache, Chairman of the RTF Board of Directors, presented at various forum events as an international expert.
Whether Russia should copy global electro-energy development practices given the avail-ability of its own traditional energy resources, extensive territory, uneven scope of manu-facturing potential, and unique climate was the main focus in the Electro-energy in Rus-sia: a National Technological Innovation or a Mirror of Global Development Trends? de-bate. Dominique Fache discussed the main development trends on the European energy market and stressed that it is essential for Russia to keep pace with other countries. In his presentation, he noted, “We don’t live on an island in Russia. The whole world is changing and developing. This should force Russia to be constantly introducing new solutions and technologies.”
The debate participants were particularly interested in a question Dominique posed to the auditorium: “What is the most profitable kilowatt today?” to which he himself answered: “The most profitable kilowatt is the virtual kilowatt! There are examples in the world of consumers creating formal or informal unions and negotiating with suppliers when they will not use electrical energy. The biggest energy companies are fighting for these kilo-watts, and therefore the prices for them are highest.”
At the plenary session, the Chinese representative raised the issue of developing a global energy bridge. Dominique Fache noted that such a multi-national, global project would require the participating countries to find not only political compromises and economic support, but also new technological and innovative solutions; furthermore, it is possible that in the near future new energy solutions on par with the internet could appear.
Dominique also directed the audience’s attention to the fact that energy will not be as inexpensive as it was during the Soviet Union. Russia still has much to change to build an optimal tariff system, especially when compared to the cost of energy in European countries. The existing electricity tariffs are insufficient. They need to be raised for small and medium-sized enterprises, which enjoy huge savings due to multiple benefits. At the household level, it is necessary to increase efficiency and to make thinking about energy savings a habit. For example, everywhere in the world, including in emerging market countries, electricity can be turned on through motion sensor; such energy-conserving devices are hard to find in Moscow.
Another topic centered around the question, “As far as innovation goes, what in Russia is sufficient or insufficient?” Dominique Fache noted that “in Russia there are many, possi-bly even too many, innovators, but almost a complete lack of a clear and organized pro-cess for transferring technology.” It is for this reason that Dominique and his Russian partners decided to found RTF (the Russian Technology Foundation). RTF helps deter-mine the right approach for partnering major oil and gas and energy companies with man-ufacturers of new, breakthrough technologies that benefit the industry.
Publication date: 22.10.2015