International Electric Networks Forum Officially Opened in Moscow. In his welcome speech, Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, emphasized that the introduction of advanced technologies in the energy sector was a global trend. The Rosseti Group was one of the first electricity companies in the Russian fuel and energy complex to go into the development and implementation of digital transformation projects. The interim results of the pilot projects indicate that the development strategy for the electric grid infrastructure of Russia was chosen correctly.

Today, a number of legislative issues hinder the full-scale implementation in Russia of all existing digital solutions that qualitatively increase the production and financial performance of electric networks. In this regard, The Russian Ministry of Energy has come up with a number of legislative initiatives, including improvement of the system of preferential utility connection, payment of unused capacity reserve by consumers, fair distribution of cross-subsidization for all categories of consumers, and consolidation of electric grid assets on the basis of backbone companies. I am sure that the early adoption of our initiatives will allow one of the world's most advanced network compounds to be built in the country,” the energy minister added.

Immediately after Alexander Novak’s address, the plenary session "Digital Transformation: new opportunities for regions and investors” started. The session participants discussed the conditions that were necessary to implement the concept of digital transformation in the electric grid compound, the concept's expected deliverables, and respective international experience.

Pavel Livinskiy, General Director of Rosseti, a company that manages electric grids that transmit over 75% of all electricity generated in Russia, said that the holding was already active in testing various pilot solutions as part of the implementation of the Digital Transformation 2030 concept approved by the Board of Directors.

The head of Rosseti told the audience that, as company's own and international experience confirmed, all the planned solutions would reduce the average network accident rate by half, and the losses by at least a quarter. It would also reduce operating and capital costs by 30% and 15%, respectively. Consequently, consumers would receive the basic services of the Rosseti Group of higher quality and at a reduced price.

“The main goal of digital transformation is to increase the efficiency and investment attractiveness of the electric grid compound through changing the logic of business processes. To achieve this, among other things, we have to solve the following problems: to standardize the industry and increase non-tariff revenue by creating additional services, which (and this is important!) are already in demand by customers right now. To do this, a mobile application shall be issued, which will allow to manage power consumption and reduce energy costs. Also, conditions are required for the distribution of prosumers, including those that use renewable energy sources, by introducing VR and AR technologies, blockchain, V2G and a number of others,” Pavel Livinskiy said.

According to the head of the Rosseti Group, an important synergistic effect for the entire economy is the creation in Russia of sustainable demand for advanced Russian-made power equipment.

"Today, Rosseti acts as the largest customer of domestic equipment and software that our enterprises did not release 2 years ago because there was no need for it, and today our demand has formed a proposal, according to all laws of the economy,” Pavel Livinskiy added.

Sergey Sakhnenko, Industrial Director of Rostech Group of Companies, spoke about the launch of modern energy equipment by the defense industry companies in more detail. Yuri Manevich, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, devoted his speech to improving the legislative framework. Livio Gallo, the Head of the Global Infrastructure and Networks division of the Italian group Enel, shared the experience of improving the efficiency of electric grids using digital technologies and international cooperation. Alexei Teksler, the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, spoke about the importance and prospects of cooperation between electric grid companies and regional structures, especially in the context of digital transformation.