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The topic of Microgeneration: Economic and Technological Efficiency was the focus of the RENWEX 2023 conference programme on the closing day.

Microgeneration facilities include electricity generation units with a maximum capacity of up to 15 kW, which are also based on renewable energy sources. Such devices are usually used to meet their own domestic and industrial needs, but can also distribute electricity through the electricity grid to other consumers.

Chair at the Green Kilowatt Association of Renewable Energy Specialists Andrey Temerov moderated a technology session called Microgeneration: Implemented Projects. Achievements in this field of green energy were shared by Valery Maganov, Director for Development at Ekoproekt Energo and Solar Center Oleg Tsygil, Director at Weles Aleksandr Shmygalev, Marketing Director for IT at Systeme Electric Yury Kolarzh, and others.

During the discussion, special attention was drawn to the current difficulties in concluding micro-generation contracts by private solar panel owners and small businesses with regional energy sales companies.

In his presentation Andrey Temerov also referred to the practice of net power flow accounting, which is essential for micro-generation, where the difference between the amount of electricity received from the grid and the electricity transmitted to the grid is an important indicator of the economic efficiency of private investments in microgeneration.

The Session on Small Hydropower: Where to Sail? was part of the RENWEX 2023 conference programme. It was dedicated to another promising area of microgeneration.

“There are just over a hundred small hydropower plants left in Russia now. Small hydro plants are economically profitable. The normative cost of one kilowatt hour per life cycle of a hydro plant is 1.5 rubles. For comparison this figure is 8 rubles for solar generation and 14 rubles for wind generation. When you know these economic calculations, you understand why hydro power plants have to develop,” said President at the National Agency for Energy Saving and Renewable Energy (NAERE) Nikolay Safronov, who moderated the event.

General Director at the INSET Interindustry Scientific and Technical Association Yakov Blyashko stressed in his speech, “The equipment produced in Russia is quite competitive abroad. Our company has supplied it to 23 countries, which is more than fifty units and hydropower plants around the world. For Russia, which has 2.5 million small rivers and where people have mainly historically settled on the banks of small rivers, it is strange that solar and wind power is developing, while small hydropower is not. I hope this situation will change somewhat in the near future.”

Other participants in the discussion were Head of the Hydropower Group at Rusatom Service Dmitry Rodionov, Member of the Central Bank of Russia's Working Group on Carbon Regulation and the Carbon Trading System, CEO at Ecopolis Vyacheslav Vekovtsev, Director at the Russian Renewable Energy Development Association Alexey Zhikharev, Deputy Executive Director at the Association NCP Mining Industrialists of Russia Vladimir Kuragin, Head of Energy, Housing and Utilities at the Corporation for Development of the Far East and Arctic  Maxim Gubanov, and others.

As part of the day of microgeneration, there was also the Session on Practical Application of Renewable Energy Technologies. The session presented a number of projects that organically use microgeneration mechanisms to reduce the costs of electricity use for businesses.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO