Golden lightnings, the main prizes in the sphere of small-scale distributed and alternative power generation, have been awarded in Moscow

The solemn ceremony of the VIII Distributed Power Generation — Great Achievements International Award took place in the Congress Hall of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in Moscow on December, 11. The high-prestige Award for the best project in the field of distributed and alternative power generation was established by the Russian Distributed Power Generation Association with the support of the Business Russia business community, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the State Duma Energy Committee, and sparked a great interest of the industry related energy enterprises and representatives of business and government. The ceremony held in the capital city of Russia was attended by representatives of more than 50 companies, finalists of the Award. The Internet broadcast of the ceremony on the website of the Distributed Power Generation Association attracted the attention of over a thousand people.

Even though the Award was held in the conditions of unstable world economy, this year the record number of the applications have been submitted to the organizing committee of the Award: 91 applications from Russia, Austria and Belarus. Geography of the implemented projects has covered both European cities and dozens of Russian regions from Vladivostok to Vladikavkaz. As the Organizing Committee of the Award noticed, it proves that distributed power generation industry is among those few industry branches which have shown a significant development and market growth in the downturn of the year 2020.

«What can be seen in Russia today can be called a bright representation of the business’ social responsibility. Not expecting any help from the outside, mobilizing its own resources, it was business who suggested the efficient ways of reducing the costs on electric and heat power to the enterprises: the demand for distributed power generating facilities has increased not only in remote areas, but in the central part of Russia as well,» — Maksim Zagornov, the organizer of the project, President of the Distributed Power Association, claimed at the ceremony of the Award.

72 projects have been included into the shortlist of the Award. They were thoroughly reviewed by the Expert Council which comprised the leading specialists of the small-scale distributed power generation industry, market leaders, heads of the industry related higher education establishments and scientists. This year Kristina Haverkamp, Managing Director of the German Energy Agency, has joined the Expert Council for the first time. In her appeal, one of the most authoritative international RES development experts emphasized the importance of energy transition and thanked the contestants of the year for their work. «You are the drivers of the transformation of our energy systems,» — Ms. Haverkamp said.

According to the decision of the Expert Council members, the Austrian company MWM Austria GmbH has become the winner in the Best distributed power generation project — power capacity up to 5 MW nomination. The company has presented the project of the 3.7 MW biogas power station implemented for a leading textile pulp producer AustroCel Hallein GmbH situated in Hallein, Austria. Launch of the facility allowed the plant to use side products from the pulp manufacturing for production of ecology friendly electric power, which has also contributed to reducing CO₂ emissions. The energy surplus is being supplied to the residential houses of Hallein and Salzburg. The Award, the Golden Lightning statuette and an honorary diploma, have been remotely given to Andreas Obwaller, CEO of MWM Austria GmbH, who was connected online to the Congress Hall of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The Golden Lightning statuette for the Best distributed power generation project — power capacity over 5 MW nomination was taken by the Russian company Stark Energy Serov, which presented the projects of 24.9 MW mini-CHP implemented for a on of the largest enterprises of the Urals, Nadezhdinski Metallurgical Plant. As Roman Dubasov, head of the project, noticed during his presentation, the mini-CHP utilizes blast furnace gas as a secondary resource for power generation and applies modern ecology friendly technologies.

Best alternative energy project nomination has become the field of the hottest fight. 19 projects claimed for the victory. Though the first prize was by a wide margin taken by RusHydro company which presented the project of a solar generating facility construction at Nizhne-Bureiskaya hydro power station. As Vyacheslav Sladkevich, the Chief Engineer of Nizhne-Bureiskaya hydro power station, said, it has become the first hybrid RES-generation project for Russian power generation industry. Stationary solar elements of total capacity estimated at 1224 kW were placed on the territory of the hydropower installation with consideration of the ultimate insolation; additionally, the first in Russia 54 kW floating solar energy station was installed here. The Golden Lightning was awarded at the Congress Hall to Roman Berdnikov, Deputy General Director for Strategy, Innovations and Prospective Development of RusHydro.

The record number of contestants, 31 applicants, were competing for the prize in the Advanced development in the energy sector nomination. The BioHouse project by AltEnergia company from Anapa has won. The project comprises an autonomous accommodation module and a smart greenhouse (bio-vegetarium) and allows to provide the required building located anywhere with alternative anergy without connecting to grids, exempt it from paying to power suppliers, choose any place for locating the building. As Andrei Temerov, General Director of the company, noticed, the BioHouse has passed the winter cold trial.

The management company IED-holding from Kazan has gain a splendid victory in the Investor of the year in the energy sector nomination. Their project, 20 MW gas turbine power station located in Yelabuga, has been implemented in on the territory of the local heating networks enterprise. Commissioning of the gas turbine power station in Yelabuga allowed driving heating tariffs for the final customer down and increasing power and heat supply systems reliability. The volume of the investments into the facility construction exceeded one billion rubles. The Award was given to the Director of the management company IED-holding (IED-Generation) Ilnar Ziganshin.

Alexander Zuyev, Business Development Director, one of the owners of Greentech Energy company, has taken the first prize for contribution into the energy sector development. Alexander’s activity has been mostly connected to the distributed power generation market and Jenbacher equipment. High level technical and managing competencies helped Alexander to turn a small service company into an engineering one, implementing the whole scope of projects of different complexity.

Another Golden Lightning statuette for contribution into the energy sector development was by the common consent of the Expert Council members given to Sergei Alekseenko, Scientific Director of the Institute of Thermophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Novosibirsk region. Sergei Alekseenko is the author and contributor to over 600 scientific papers, owner of 49 patents of invention, and is widely regarded as one of the most authoritative experts in the spere of thermal physics, power engineering and energy saving in the world.

This year 2 special diplomas were awarded by the decision of the Organizing Committee: to the awardee of the VIII Distributed Power Generation — Great Achievements International Award, INNIO company for the range of innovative projects implemented in 2020; and to the Far East Investment and Export Agency for the development of the Concept of attracting private investments into distributed power generation development, including renewable energy resources based, in remote and isolated areas of Far East and Arctic.

Let us note that this year for the first time in the history of the Award, not only the Expert Council, but the whole industry society had a chance to choose the best projects of the year. About a million unique users have voted for the top rank industry related projects of the year within the frames of the public online voting on the Award website; thus, they have voted for the innovative way of power generation development. The winners of the public online voting are: KrialEnergoStroi Plant (nomination 1), VAPOR (nomination 2), Taganay National Park (nomination 3), Alexander Smykov, an inventor (nomination 4), the management company IED-holding (nomination 5), Sergei Semyonov, Director of Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Russia, CIS and Poland at Schneider Electric (nomination 6).

Summing up the ceremony, the President of the Russian Distributed Power Generation Association Maksim Zagornov noted that the level of the contestant project was very high this year, and in general, the winner was the whole distributed power generation industry. «In this respect, the role of the Award can hardly be overestimated: by replicating the best industry practices, accumulating the most advanced Russian and foreign experience, the competition contributes to the development of the distributed power generation industry and an increase in the level of engineering in the country,» — Maksim Zagornov said.

The organizers of the VIII Distributed Power Generation — Great Achievements International Award thank the general partners of the project: MKS Group of Companies, MWM, INNIO, International POL Testing Centre; the general media partner Power and Industry of Russia newspaper; media partners: Turbines and Diesels magazine, Elec.ru, RENWEX.

Record of the online broadcast: