Smart grid electric network selling energy purchase. Smart power grids Smart Grid in Russia: cases, prospects, difficulties

Problems and solutions

• The operation of renewable energy sources (wind and solar) is driven rather by weather and climatic conditions rather than the needs of users, which makes the management and distribution of electricity even more complex. As a consequence, the stability of networks in terms of voltage and frequency is affected.
• Problems also arise for thermal power plants, which must operate at maximum full load. However, given changes in demand and power generation from solar and wind, plants must adjust their energy production quite frequently. This leads to loss of performance and wear.
• Electricity storage can solve both problems.
• Among the various technologies available for storing electricity, the battery (galvanic) battery has become the most widely used.
• However, the battery is a direct current source, so a converter is needed to connect it to the network.
• Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali manufactures the power equipment and related control systems necessary to regulate electrical storage batteries and ensure that the parameters correspond to the national grid.

Electricity storage is part of an ASI project called Zeus

ZEUS: Local Smart Networks

Local smart networks (Micro Smart Grid) are an electrical system of connected generators and loads. A smart grid may not be large network,serving certain territory and not connected to other networks (eg island).
The local network is controlled by an intelligent infrastructure (eg Energy Management System), which manages energy flows.

Power Management System (PMS) or Electricity Management System regulates the production and consumption of electricity in real time.

An intelligent electrical network (Smart Grid) is divided into clusters, usually according to territorial principle Each cluster can operate offline if the external network is down.

Local smart networks

Energy Storage Solutions

Main characteristics of the battery

An electricity storage system can take energy from the grid when there is an excess of its production, and vice versa, supply electricity in proportion
needs if there is a shortage. The charging/discharging time limit can take seconds, minutes or hours. Therefore, the system can work in different ways:

• Load Peak Removal/Temporary Manipulation: The system can store energy when grid load is low and release electricity during peak loads. Typical applications: solar energy, wind power plants to increase productivity.
• Balancing: compensation of random energy production from the sun/wind every second/every minute. Power quality: The system can control reactive power independent of active power. This increases the linear power factor or reduces unwanted harmonics in the network.
• Voltage regulation: Reactive power control device can be used by the grid operator to ensure line voltage stability.
• Frequency regulation, primary and secondary reserves: A dedicated control function connects active power to line frequency automatically. The network operator can use this function to ensure that equipment operates in a “standby” mode for frequency regulation.
• Cold start: The system can also provide emergency starting from a blackout state. The battery, through an inverter, powers the network after a power outage and thereby allows the network to operate normally.
• Primary "reserve" for traditional power plants: the equipment works in parallel with the main heat generator, ensuring their full load, since the necessary “reserve” can be provided by the battery within one minute.

Battery Solutions

The battery is connected to the network via an inverter with an active filter; This solution is used in solar and wind power plants. The charging/discharging of a group of batteries is controlled by a DC/DC converter.

The system is based on PMS solution, property Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali:

DC/DC converter

The charging/discharging of a group of batteries is controlled by separate DC/DC converters, each of which operates on a group of batteries in
in accordance with the (V/I) voltage - current diagram provided by the battery manufacturer. Each battery group has a BMS (Battery Management System)
battery). The BMS is connected to the company's Scada Artics Smat Energy system. Standard battery curves are shown below:

The system can interact with various types of batteries: lithium-ion, sodium and others. Using a separate dc/dc controller for each battery group allows for better system on-line control and higher efficiency.
Each battery group can be charged and discharged using separate control logic to optimize battery performance. Difference in work among various types batteries due to inevitable deviations can be compensated. Each dc/dc converter is connected to the converter's internal active filter DC bus. The standard internal DC circuit operates in the voltage range of 0.6 -1 kV, depending on the size and power of the storage system. The Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali solution provides for redundancy in a battery group (eg each group will operate independently of the operation of other battery groups).

Inverter with active filter

	Network interface provided by connection of the inverter with active filter with separate system control that allows separately regulate active and reactive power. Special line filter cleans high frequency harmonics, not letting them into the network.
	Voltage filtered inverter for harmonic removal. Full coefficient harmonic distortions - within acceptable values (eg no more than 2%).

Active and reactive power monitoring

Separate functions for monitoring active and reactive
power

A): This function ties active power to network frequency B): Power factor as active power function. C): Reactive power as a function mains voltage.

Continuity Ability
power supply during failures (example)

Primary and secondary frequency control. Reactive power regulation to stabilize network voltage. Automatic parallel operation in weak networks powered by small diesel-electric groups.

Inverter with active filter for weak networks

System capabilities in the event of a short circuit so that the protective distribution devices have time to turn on.

MODULAR INVERTER: mopower 20 - 1000 kW

INVERTER IN CONTAINER: 500-750-1000-1500 kW stations

Electrical Storage Solution

Battery system offline

Batteries in parallel connection on one DC bus. Solar power plant

COMMUNICATION: inverter - station - external network

Shaft generator

A shaft generator is a special synchronous generator driven by the main shaft power plant; rotates at constant speed. The connection between the generator and the network is ensured by an inverter with an active filter. The system is used during navigation in fuel saving mode.

The vessel's power supply is also powered by a diesel-electric generator.
The network is characterized by low installed power and can be considered as Local Network regulated by the Power Management System (PMS). The shaft generator must provide power to the network in autonomous or parallel mode with other diesel groups. The following parameters must be provided:

The inverter is capable of providing primary regulation in terms of frequency and voltage. It is also possible to provide secondary regulation using points defined by the PMS.

MIXED GENERATION: DIESEL-GENERATOR AND SOLAR

POWER PLANT FOR REMOTE AREAS

In remote regions, networks may be isolated from main power lines. Such networks, as a rule, operate in autonomous “island” mode and are powered by generators various types, incl. from diesel-electric. The development of renewable energy sources contributes to the development of systems capable of running on traditional or environmentally friendly fuels.

New drivers are becoming high efficiency and energy saving. Example: remote pumping station project stations where diesel generators work in parallel with solar ones. The system includes one station to generate energy using diesel installations. Parallel solar generation is used panels. The solar installation produces electricity and puts it into the network with using an inverter with active filter. This solution allows you to save energy and reduce emissions carbon dioxide, because during the daytime distribution priority is given energy obtained from renewable energy sources.

MIXED GENERATION: DIESEL GENERATOR AND TIDAL POWER PLANT

HYDRAULIC GENERATORS (SMALL HPP)

SOLAR ENERGY AND STORAGE

Solar installations, power range 1 - 10 MWh

ELECTRICITY STORAGE FOR TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LINES

Electricity storage ranging from a few MW to tens of MW. Battery type: sodium-nickel and lithium-ion.
Functionality:

• Primary and secondary frequency control
• Reactive power: capacitive/inductive mode
• Possibility of time shift
• Peak load limitation

CONCLUSIONS

ASI can supply the necessary technological equipment, integrate it into the system, manage most of the energy chain.
ASI's extensive experience in alternative energy and sustainable energy solutions guarantees:

• Development and implementation of flexible and effective technological solutions.
• Fast return on investment.
• An integrated approach.
• Easy integration with building automation and wireless monitoring solutions.

The state of energy networks in Russia is approaching a critical level of deterioration. Performance and durability margin energy systems almost exhausted. Today, approximately 60-70% of the fixed assets of the electric grid complex have long expired. In conditions of a sharp increase in the volume of energy resource consumption, dispatching departments do not always cope with emerging situations, which leads to corresponding consequences and losses for energy companies. Need for new modern solutions Such situations are not just a matter of minimizing losses, it is a condition for the development of the energy industry as a whole.

Modern loads on the power system require fast and most accurate state analysis working system to localize problems or prevent them by forecasting loads on individual system segments. In this regard, energy networks are increasingly required to be complemented by new digital intelligent solutions that can support the task of collecting and analyzing large amounts of data.

In a number European countries The process of modernizing the electric power industry towards the creation of “smart” power supply networks, called Smart Grid, has been systematically and consistently going on for a long time. “Intelligent” power grid management provides automation, monitoring and control of two-way energy transmission at all stages - from the power plant to the household outlet. For the scale of Russia, quickly implementing and completely switching to using Smart Grid solutions is not so easy. However, projects to integrate “smart” technologies into industrial energy are no longer something to talk about the future.

What do we have?

The first “smart” distribution networks appeared in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan, and a little later in Irkutsk. One of these projects is a pilot zone, implemented jointly with "Lenenergo". It includes a section of the 6 kV network in the historical part of St. Petersburg. The goal of the project is to confirm the functionality of the proposed solutions and technologies, and to demonstrate the possibility of integration into the Smart Grid network using a real example.

Also worth attention is the project in Siberia, where Smart Grid technologies are being implemented based on "Irkutsk Electric Grid Company". Schneider Electric provided a range of services for setting up a “smart” network, including design, supply and installation of equipment, installation of software and subsequent maintenance of equipment. Moreover, employees were trained in the basics of working with the new technology.

The next successful project is a case JSC "Bashkir Electric Grid Company" in Ufa. On at the moment A pilot project has been completed and work is underway to replicate it across the city as a whole. As part of the pilot project, outdated equipment was replaced with new equipment with observability and controllability functions, as well as a high level of safety and reliability. Commercial electricity metering devices have also been installed and a network control center has been organized for the city as a whole. As a result of the project implementation, the actual level of electricity losses decreased from 19% to 1%.

According to Dmitry Sharovatov, general director JSC "Bashkir Electric Grid Company": "Without new approaches to building business processes and organization production processes The future of any industry, including energy, is impossible."

Of course, the implementation of the Smart Grid concept in Russia is a long and multi-stage process. At the same time, the use of “smart” platforms for managing big energy consumption data provides a whole list of advantages.

One of the most important capabilities of smart systems is the ability to reduce operating costs. New generation substations reduce operating costs by combining multiple control and monitoring systems into one network. At the same time, there is a reduction in capital expenditures. An equally important consequence of the implementation of smart networks is the improvement of power system protection, since information from all stations and substations can be controlled from a single application.

In general, the Smart Grid project has a medium- and long-term return on investment horizon. To make the network cost-effective and smart, a whole range of activities is needed. Based on the experience of European countries, it takes an average of one and a half years for the system to begin to justify the investment.

Today, the lion's share of innovative technologies in the electric power industry has been developed abroad. Based on this, most intelligent monitoring and control systems cannot be used in Russian networks in full, since there are a number of technological differences between the electrical power infrastructure of Russia and Western countries. In this regard, domestic developments in the field of the Internet of things, smart microgrids, analysis and control systems for energy systems have every chance of gaining a foothold in a huge market that is just beginning to develop.

Smart energy solutions that the market is waiting for are, first of all, those that will be aimed at solving the main problems of the industry: improving the quality and reliability of energy supply, increasing operational efficiency, qualitative improvement technical condition energy network infrastructure, increasing energy efficiency.

It will be possible to discuss the prospects for the development of smart solutions in the field of energy, as well as get acquainted with ready-made smart solutions for the Russian energy market at the Smart Energy Summit 2018 in Moscow on March 27-28.

A complete list of participants and program details are available after filling out this form.

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For about 15 years in the global and about 8 years in the domestic energy sector, there has been a discussion about the implementation and development of the “Smart Grid” and “Digital Substation” concepts. Participation in a number of forums and discussions dedicated to this topic, personal contacts with specialists in the power grid complex, my own experience in the development and implementation of power electrical equipment make me wary of this fashionable topic. I have the feeling that everything that is being done in this area now resembles a sect.

There are several theses, doubt about which is “taboo” and excluded from public discussion:

1. Smart Grid is a fundamentally new approach to building the electric power industry in general and the electric grid complex in particular.
2. Smart Grid is a targeted policy of major players in the energy market aimed at increasing the efficiency of resource use.
3. “Smart Grid” and “Digital Substation” technologies will lead to a noticeable reduction in the costs of construction and operation of electrical grid facilities.
4. The introduction of “smart grids” and “digital substations” will provide a sharp increase in the efficiency of using renewable energy sources and improve the environment.
5. “Smart Grid” and “Digital Substation” technologies are the energy of tomorrow, which is being created today.

This is far from full list topics, but for the purposes of this article we will limit ourselves to them.

So point by point:

1. What is so fundamentally new in the construction of the electric power industry that apologists of “smart grids” offer? Superimposing another system on the existing system of production, transmission and consumption of electricity - information. This principle was described in our childhood by the following joke: what happens if you cross a snake with a hedgehog? Yeah, one and a half meters of barbed wire. The fundamental novelty of the system implies the emergence of NEW, previously absent qualities and functions. In this sense, modern technologies“smart grid” and “digital substation” simply change the performer in a number of technological operations. Instead of an aunt with a notepad, the meter readings are taken by an electronic communication system, instead of an electromagnetic relay, a microelectronic relay is used, etc. The introduction of new systems and technologies is not revolutionary - it is of a normal evolutionary nature. And, from the point of view of development theory technical systems, we are now dealing with the “final stage of development”, which is characterized by a large number of minor improvements to the existing system. This is not due to development as such, but to the fact that over the decades large number various enterprises and structures that must justify their existence. That is, at the initial stage of development of the electric grid complex, they worked for its development, and now - for their own.
2. The only player truly interested in promoting “smart grid” and “digital substation” technologies I see are manufacturers of electrical equipment (and, more specifically, manufacturers of digital devices and communications media). Most of the declarations about the high efficiency and other wonderful properties of these products are purely marketing in nature and are not supported by any serious quantitative research. They probably exist and are simply skillfully hidden from my view. Manufacturers' reasons are clear and noble - they create new products and try to create markets for their sustainable sale. I don’t understand what relation these reasons have to declarations on the creation of new energy.
3. One of the arguments of equipment manufacturers for “digital substations” and “smart grid” is the statement that the use of new technologies will lead to a reduction in the cost of constructing new electrical grid facilities. I have not seen any real confirmation of this thesis anywhere. But what I have encountered is some slyness when, in order to demonstrate the economic efficiency of the costs of digital equipment, many people take it out of the cost calculation brackets additional systems. For example: when constructing digital substations, it is possible to significantly save on the cost of control cables. At the same time, the cost of organizing a guaranteed operational power supply system, the costs of organizing and ensuring the functioning of the process bus itself, the costs of personnel training and software support are taken out of the equation. After all, it’s no secret that electronic devices, no matter how quickly they develop, become obsolete just as quickly. And they are discontinued. And they lose the support of manufacturers. Not a single honest electronics manufacturer declares, without reservations, the life cycle of their products to be at least 20 years, let alone 30-40 years. And this is how long power equipment usually lasts. This leads to an overall shortening of the periods between reconstructions. Which is good for manufacturers, but hardly leads to a reduction in the cost of owning an object. And in general, where have you seen a manufacturer who says: “I made such a wonderful device that costs less, but you need to buy it less often”?!!
4. The projected dramatic increase in efficiency also does not inspire confidence. And here's why. Modern digital systems make it possible to collect a huge amount of information. What is presented as an unconditional good. But this is not a fact. The amount of information is not very correlated with controllability. The fact that we now have terabytes of data on various aspects of economic and social activities, does not make our society more reasonable and manageable. It's the same with networks. First we create a data collection system, then a data storage system. And then a system for sorting and filtering data. Because in reality we need 1% of what we receive. Additionally, there is a very noticeable difference in mentality between developers mechanical systems and electronics and software developers. This difference is very precisely illustrated by one of Murphy’s laws: “if builders built houses the way programmers write programs, then the first woodpecker that flew in would destroy civilization” (Weinberg’s Second Law). It's a joke, yes. But there is a very large grain of truth in it. And we are talking about power grids that must function for decades without system failures or rolling blackouts. In any geographical and climatic zones. In addition, I would like to touch on one more aspect. The trend that emerged more than 15 years ago was to exclude humans from the operational management of the system. This blue dream of science fiction writers is not yet achievable, but has already affected the qualifications of the staff and the principles of training. Figuratively speaking, we are striving for the situation described in the old Soviet joke about the flight of Belka and Strelka: “Chukchi, did you feed the dogs? Look, don’t touch the devices!” Let’s just forget about the environmental effect for the sake of clarity. Or we need to change civilization. Our civilization has always chosen between ecology and comfort - comfort.
5. So what are Smart Grid technologies? They leave more questions than answers. They are not formalized and are often multidirectional. They are more often used as a kind of password. Just five years ago, these password words were “nanotechnology” and “innovation.” Few who used these words really knew what they meant. At best, he adjusted his solutions to the definition from Wikipedia, worrying only about formal compliance. Of course, our wires are nanotechnological - they are made of atoms (if you look closely). Most discussions on the topic of “smart grid” come down to juggling meanings. And, for this reason, it is meaningless. Is this the future of our energy sector? Moreover, this concept was born in the West and is being introduced into our system “as is”, without creative and critical reflection. I’m not a “Westernphobe,” although that’s fashionable now. But the thoughtless rejection of domestic, almost century-old experience...is surprising.

Summarizing all of the above, I would like to offer my vision of the topic “smart grid” and “digital substation”

1. These terms are a marketing trick to designate a class of products and technologies for modernizing the electrical grid complex using modern IT solutions.
2. The electrical grid complex, both in our country and in most other countries, is approaching the end of its life cycle and is on the verge of a global renewal. Since today no fundamentally new methods of producing and transmitting electricity have been proposed, the new cycle of development of global energy does not have the opportunity to make a fundamental qualitative leap in the process of renewal. The launch of discussions and developments in the field of “smart grid” and “digital substation” was an attempt to create this fundamental qualitative leap artificially. The success of this attempt is debatable. But the idea is beautiful: let’s throw in the idea and let the people figure out what to do with it.
3. As it should be, a lot of speculation and outright garbage has grown around the basic - not very stupid - idea. But this one side effect– this is a completely expected and normal thing. New technologies have never been born in all their completeness and elaboration at once. The only thing I would like to see from people making decisions in our energy sector is a balanced and active position. It's not just equipment manufacturers who have to figure out how the power system will develop over a 50-year planning horizon. This is the task of energy systems: to formulate a general concept and ensure effective demand for products.
4. The idea of ​​“smart grid” and “digital substation” lacks a clear and attractive ideology. The idea of ​​“doing it a little better than it is” cannot inspire creative feats and breakthroughs.
5. And the most paradoxical thing: this must be done!
   There is hope that the cumulative Brownian motion will finally acquire a meaningful vector of development and we will be able to make this qualitative leap. And it is much more interesting to work for this fragile perspective than to try to reproduce the technologies of the last century.

Academician V.E. Fortov is Academician-Secretary of the Department of Energy, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics and Control Processes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Joint Institute high temperatures RAS. His scientific research is recognized as being of fundamental importance for the development of pulsed and industrial energy, space physics, controlled thermonuclear fusion, and rocket technology. Held high positions: Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences; deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Chairman State Committee Russian Federation on science and technical policy; Minister of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation. He has received high awards - both from our country and from foreign countries.

Vladimir Evgenievich, in June, within the framework of the IV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a round table “Smart Grids - Smart Energy - Smart Economy” was held, which you moderated. Please tell us what is meant by the term “smart grids”?

- “Smart networks”, or “Smart Grid”, is a large-scale direction in modern energy. This term appeared relatively recently: energy ceases to be just a means of a comfortable life, but becomes a means of developing all areas of human activity. The meaning of “Smart Grid” is to make the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy “intelligent”, to saturate electrical networks with modern diagnostic tools, electronic control systems, algorithms, technical devices such as short-circuit current limiters of superconducting lines and many, many others that have appeared in science and technology today. Roughly speaking, this is a combination of the capabilities of information technology, already familiar to us from the Internet, with power electrical engineering.

Does this give you a win?

This provides a multiple - many times - reduction in losses during the transmission of electrical energy from the generator to the consumer, a multiple increase in the reliability of energy supply, makes it possible to optimally redistribute energy flows and thereby reduce peak loads (and all electrical systems are designed specifically for peak loads). This finally gives the consumer the opportunity to participate in the electricity market.

After all, if previously the consumer took electrical energy from one seller, then now he is in market conditions: he can choose among generating companies. This, by the way, was the point of reforms in the energy sector - to create a competitive environment. But in order for you, as a consumer, to analyze where it is cheaper for you to buy and get energy, you must know exactly where and at what prices it is sold, where there is an excess of it today, and where there is a shortage.

Another need for a Smart Grid relates to so-called renewable energy sources. Both here and in Europe there is a lot of talk that we need to move away from carbon-based energy associated with combustion organic fuel, and switch to alternative energy - solar, wind, hydrogen, and so on. In particular, this is also due to the development of electric transport, where it is necessary to have dispersed power sources and charging. But in order to connect renewable energy sources to a large network and make them the same market objects as other sources, we need these smart networks - “Smart Grid”.

There are more old problem, associated with consumers of electrical energy.

For example, you connect an electrical network to a house where, say, there are two hundred apartments, of which twenty apartments do not pay for electricity, while the rest pay regularly. To force these twenty - after all, in a store without money you will not get goods, and electricity is the same product - you must turn them off, but turn off the “non-paying ones”, while not disturbing your neighbors. Today, alas, there is no such possibility; if they turn off, then the whole house.

In short, we need to saturate the entire system from generation to the consumer, to the outlet in an apartment or enterprise, with smart electronics that will provide accurate information: how much electricity can be supplied to you today, at what price. And you, through the management company or yourself, if you are able to do this, choose the optimal manufacturer, and tomorrow - not this one, but another. Thus, it is necessary to combine diagnostic tools, on the one hand, with modern management tools, on the other, and with decision-making tools, on the third. This is a very difficult task if we talk about the last stage of electricity transmission - to the consumer.

That is, we are talking about the level of the citizen-consumer and the outlet in his apartment?

No, serious problems also arise at much earlier stages. Let's say, if, for example, a short circuit current occurs in high-voltage networks of 220 kilovolts and above, then you must quickly turn off this network, redistribute the loads in real time and thereby fend off the accident. And for this we need new modern methods of limiting large currents - tens of kiloamperes. By the way, we are in

The Institute of High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences has developed explosive circuit breakers that break kiloampere currents in a few microseconds.

Or another, similar problem: let's say lightning strikes a power line, and very big losses- overvoltage, short circuits, false alarms, and so on. Our institute has developed an explosive magnetic generator that simulates a lightning strike on a power line - it uses the energy of an explosive (and the specific capacity of chemical explosives is a million times higher than capacitors) and converts it into an impulse electric current- a discharge occurs, very similar to a lightning strike. Our development allows us to make equipment that can be placed on a car, and then travel to real power lines, substations and check grounding, current limiting systems and other electrical equipment.

The third problem: when you are working on a high voltage line and want to measure current and voltage, you must make sure that the high voltage does not enter the meter. Previously, this was done using transformers, but transformers are large in size, and their insulators are also rather large - two meters long. It turns out that you can use a fiber optic line - the kind used in telephone and computer communications - and see the change in the plane of polarization of the Faraday rotation and from this change in the plane of polarization on a very small device determine what current is flowing there

Does the meaning of “Smart Grid” extend to the scale of the country’s networks?

Yes, we need backbone or distribution networks that can independently monitor their condition and the operating mode of consumers, generators, electrical lines and substations, and automatically implement solutions that allow for uninterrupted power supply and maximum economic efficiency. For example, a “smart grid” itself must form a control action to achieve the optimal level of electricity losses when flows along power lines increase due to increased consumption by a large consumer or an entire energy interconnection. Self-diagnosis and self-healing must be triggered, while the weakest sections or dangerous elements of the network must be automatically identified, and the network diagram must also be automatically rebuilt to avoid an accident.

An important element of a smart grid is a digital substation. Work on similar projects is underway in Europe, the USA, Japan, India, China, including our Federal Grid Company. In such a substation, all information of monitoring, protection and control systems is generated, processed and managed in digital format using special optical digital instrument transformers and new generation digital equipment complexes.

In short, the Russian electric power industry must be formed into an integral multi-level management system with an increase in the volume of automation and an increase in critical reliability, including the weakest and most vulnerable links, with the anticipation of systemic risks and threats and with a quick response to incidents and accidents. This is the meaning behind the term “smart grids” or “Smart Grid”.

Did representatives of foreign companies speak?

Five times more interested participants came to the round table than the organizers expected. To be honest, many of them didn’t even have a place to sit - nevertheless, we sat for 3.5 hours.

Foreign participants - representatives of the largest electrical engineering companies in the world - spoke very actively, shared their experience, showed interest in our market, and this is a huge market, and they are ready to buy and implement much of what the Russian Academy of Sciences offers.

The global economic crisis turned out to be the starting signal for the modernization of the economy and, first of all, the electric power industry. Thus, Barack Obama, in his famous speech on the development of science, singled out the topic of “smart grids” separately, and more recently he also gave a speech, specifically on energy, where he said that “Smart Grid” is a direction that needs to be actively develop. Indeed, the implementation of the Smart Grid in the United States has already dramatically improved the reliability of the nation's energy systems. Therefore, the US budget allocates $4.5 billion for the program for the development of “smart grids” alone! Accordingly, the West is increasing funding for science in this direction: the share of spending on science in energy companies in developed countries today is 3 - 8%.

Are the Western and Russian approaches to organizing “smart grids” different?

Undoubtedly. Experts in the West strive for orderly interconnectedness of the functioning and interaction of compactly located generating facilities, power grids and consumers, at the territorial and organizational level municipalities. They are interested in the possibility of connecting small generating sources of electricity; their market is dictated by the demand for local “smart grids”.

Management tasks at interregional, national and international level They are currently less concerned about the functioning of energy systems.

And in Russia, energy supply to consumers occurs in difficult economic, technical, natural and climatic conditions; we focus on large generating facilities; we have a different level of integration of large systems with a significantly higher level of complexity of system relationships. Accordingly, we will need to restructure the entire global electricity grid on the principles of multifunctional automation. Including taking into account the long-term task of restoring the coordination management of the energy systems of the CIS countries.

By the way, due to this purely Russian specificity, we have always been ahead in many achievements: the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station was the most powerful, the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station was the highest, the first wind turbine was built here, the longest energy system of 2.5 million kilometers was the first to be built in USSR, the most economical steam-gas cycle with an efficiency of 62 percent was invented by the Russian scientist, academician Sergei Alekseevich Khristianovich, the first nuclear power plant was ours, and so on and so forth. In electronic science and energy, Russia has never had such a large lag as, for example, now in computer science and medicine. The “smart grid” program was launched in the United States just four years ago - for Russia this is a small head start.

For Russia, are “smart grids” still just a concept or is there a chance of being put into practice?

Let's start with practical implementation. O.M. Budargin, Chairman of the Board of the Federal Grid Company of the Unified Energy System, said at the round table that systematic underfunding in the 90s and the lack of an integrated approach when applying new technological solutions in networks led to the fact that our networks today are, unfortunately, , aging infrastructure (50%), physical and moral aging of electrical equipment, outdated information systems and process control systems. Therefore, the company plans to form a new ideology in the next three years and technology platform for transformations, and make the next two years a period for testing new solutions, technologies, and implementing pilot projects for the full-scale implementation of “smart grids”.

The company's investment program is over 200 billion rubles annually. Thus, the company plans to carry out a comprehensive modernization and innovative development of all subjects of the electric power industry based on advanced technologies globally throughout the country. The expected reduction in electricity losses from planned activities in networks of all voltage classes is about 25 percent!

So, very briefly: what is the meaning of “Smart Grid”?

Firstly, the success of exiting global crisis and the sustainable post-crisis development of the country's economy is largely determined by the extent to which the Russian electric power industry can satisfy current and future needs for energy resources and related services. And, secondly, unlike some other areas of science, where, unfortunately, there is a noticeable lag, both Western and Russian scientists and specialists are starting almost simultaneously on the topic of “smart networks”.

Sorry for the abrupt turn of the topic: what would you do if you were not a physicist, but a philosopher?

I would start analyzing what is happening in modern Russia. Over the past two crisis years, we have undergone radical economic changes - very painful, first of all, painful for academic science. And this despite the fact that in post-Soviet times, science gained the opportunity to be more open, freer from ideological restrictions - this is a positive factor, but at the same time it became “free” from money and therefore a very serious civilization, which was called “science of the USSR”, actually collapsed. . We have lost an absolutely phenomenal layer of smart people, scientific schools - I would do something about it. The technical infrastructure has collapsed. Just recently, in June, we talked about this at a meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, when we summed up the results of the examination of the accident at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP. We, Russian citizens, today are becoming people in whom I am not sure whether they will be able to properly manage the powerful weapon called scientific and technical infrastructure and left to us as a legacy from the previous era. We cannot always maintain this scientific and technical infrastructure in working order so that it fulfills its functions, and therefore it becomes dangerous not only for itself, but also for the environment, for its neighbors.

The second thing I would do if I were a philosopher. A colossal number of intelligent, smart people lost their jobs, turned into homeless people, beggars, sneaker sellers at the Cherkizovsky market, and so on. Behind each of these events there is a person. But society is worth it too! And how did it happen that this society does not actually fight for its rights? Why do democratic institutions, which are a necessary condition of a capitalist society (freedom without democracy is a zoo), why do the same intelligentsia and the same society pass by this?

Further, if I were a philosopher, I would think: today there is no ideology, and we all say that this is great, but it is great - for the time being. For example, I am a physicist and have worked in the most prestigious institutes and now work in a prestigious institute called the Academy of Sciences, and I have never felt ideological pressure. It’s not that this didn’t apply to physicists or that we had nothing to say, but we just didn’t get involved in this matter, it wasn’t interesting to us. But what is happening now? A generation of young citizens is growing up, and we do not formulate any tasks for them. We do not have an ideology, but one that is already correctly understood, and it seems to me that today philosophy should give, perhaps, not one, but a set of some ideas, offer some kind of choice. I cannot agree that a person works to be rich. This is a road to nowhere. Even the ancient philosophers said that it is not the one who has a lot who is rich, but the one who needs little. Even if this is a strange word - lack of spirituality or spirituality - but still a person must have something in his head other than primitive philosophical constructs. Religion is weak. There are, in my opinion, very pressing questions here, and perhaps philosophers are doing this, but I don’t feel it, you know, I don’t see them - neither on television, nor in the press, anywhere.

Interviewed by Sergei SHARASHANE

Energy efficiency and resource conservation are strategically important areas in economically developed countries, including Russia, where provisions in these areas are enshrined at the legislative level.

The availability of resources in our country coexists with thoughtless wastefulness. And the use of smart grids is designed to cope with existing problems.

Currently, there is no clear definition of Smart Grid technology - smart networks, also known as intelligent or active-adaptive networks.

IN Western countries The term “Smart Grid” means the merging of existing energy systems with alternative (non-traditional) energy sources, as well as the use of devices that optimize the operation of the system, primarily metering devices.

This also includes the network’s ability to self-diagnosis and self-healing.

In Russia, the following interpretation can be distinguished, applied to this term in most sources: with the help of smart networks, energy modernization is carried out in order to reduce losses.

The energy system is structured quite simply; it can be depicted as a chain: it is supplied to consumers through networks. At the same time, all capacities of any link in the chain must be reliable and efficient, which implies the removal of outdated equipment and the use of innovative solutions and technologies.

• the ability to regulate loads for consumers;
• reduction of energy losses;
• reducing resource costs;
• reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere through savings and attracting alternative sources, that is, improving ecological situation in the short and long term;
• a push for the development of alternative energy, the smart meter manufacturing industry, transformer substations and other related areas;
• automatic quick reaction to changing conditions, quick response to emergency situation, self-healing circuit;
• increasing the efficiency of the system as a whole.

The sun and wind as energy sources are intermittent, and as the share of this type of energy increases, the need for flexibility in the energy supply system and a balance between supply and demand is increasingly felt.

Smart networks are able to store energy, releasing it when necessary - for example, during peak loads or accidents, they can regulate throughput and quality of electricity.

Smart Grid helps to collect all the energy from various sources and correctly distribute it among consumers, while ensuring network stability in terms of voltage and frequency. In addition to redirecting energy, connecting consumers to new sources is a major challenge. It is expected that these will include generating sources with zero or reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

The security of the entire system is achieved by the ability of networks and equipment to self-diagnostics and self-healing.

Implementing the concept of smart grids in practice requires a systematic approach and significant financial investments. Scientific research and active work to introduce innovations are being conducted in this direction.

Pilot projects are being implemented all over the world, and Russian companies are actively involved in this process.

Humanity asked the indicated questions in time, because ignoring them could lead to a general energy collapse. And the introduction of smart networks will help avoid this.