Today, the State Duma will consider the key issues of the development of distributed generation in Russia

Today, on February 14, the State Duma of the Russian Federation will host a meeting of the Expert Council of the Energy Committee, where key issues of small-scale distributed energy development in Russia will be discussed. On the agenda is the discussion of the so-called "Concept of AEC/ESSO", the main purpose of which is to improve the safety of the UES of Russia with the ever-increasing integration of distributed energy. Representatives of both large and small power engineering and business are invited to analyze the proposed innovations. Among the experts involved is Maxim Zagornov, President of the Russian Association of Small-scale Power Engineering and Director of the MKS Group of Companies. The meeting was chaired by S.Y. Yesyakov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Energy Committee.

The reason for the development of the "AEC/ESSO Concept" was the active growth of the share of distributed generation in Russia. On the one hand, modern technologies of efficient low-maintenance distributed generation are becoming more and more available and create prerequisites for industrial consumers to create their own generating facilities. On the other hand, the continuously growing cost of electricity for industrial consumers forms price signals for switching to own generation. The growing share of distributed generation is also connected with legislative incentives for utilization of associated petroleum gas, with the need of industrial enterprises for efficient sources of heat or cold.

According to the AEC/ESSO Concept analytical note, all these factors lead to "uncontrolled withdrawal of solvent consumers from the Unified Energy System of Russia, which discriminates against consumers remaining in the UES, and also leads to deterioration of the economic position of generating and grid companies".

To restrain the rapid development of distributed generation in Russia, a system of economic and technological barriers was developed, as set forth in the "Concept of AEC/ESSO", where:

AEK - Active energy complex - an energy system that is electrically interconnected within the unified boundaries of balance belonging, which includes power receiving, generating, power grid equipment, management system, and an entity engaged in managing this energy system as a unified complex in order to meet energy needs.

ESSO is an energy supplying self-balancing organization established on the basis of a retail electricity supplier - a generation company or a sales company or a guaranteeing supplier - owning generation assets. ESSO solves the tasks of operational and technological management of energy facilities and modes of AEC and conducts sales activities.

Meanwhile, this Concept has caused a heated discussion in the expert industry community. According to Maxim Zagornov, President of the Russian Association of Small-Scale Power Generation, Director of the MKS Group of Companies, at a time when distributed generation is becoming a trend all over the world, in Russia more and more new barriers are being erected in front of this industry.

We will tell you more about the "Concept of AEC/ESSO", the stages of implementation of the proposed changes, the regulatory legal framework for the implementation of this model, as well as the expert assessment that the participants of the discussion gave to this initiative - we will tell you after the meeting. Follow the news on the website of the Russian Association of Small-Scale Power Engineering.