Parliamentary hearings “On the Legislative Support of the Optimization of the Fuel-Energy Balance of the Russian Federation” held at State Duma

21.03.2007 // Press Center of Nuclear Power Sector

On Mar 20 2007 the State Duma Committee on Energy, Transport and Communication held parliamentary hearings “On the Legislative Support of the Optimization of the Fuel-Energy Balance of the Russian Federation”.

Attending the hearings were the director of the Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Makarov, the director of the FEC Department of the Ministry of Industry and Energy Anatoly Yanovsky, the secretary general of the Eurasian Economic Community Grigory Rapota, representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Federal Tariff Service, the Federal Service of State Statistics, Rosatom, RAO UES of Russia, Gazprom, Rostomprom (Russian Fuel Company),  fuel extracting companies.

While opening the hearings, the chairman of the Committee Valery Yazev said that the optimization of the country’s fuel-energy balance till 2030 implies diversification of the energy production and consumptions structure and enhancement of the share of nuclear energy to 23%-25%. The electricity output should be increased by 1.5 times by 2015 and redoubled by 2030.

The head of the Nuclear Energy Department of Rosatom Valery Rachkov said that Rosatom has its version of the national energy policy. He presented the key stages of the policy: “At the first stage (till 2015), we should reduce the dependence of the electric power industry on gas and capitalize the receipts from the fuel export for investment in energy saving technologies and equipment. At the second stage, we should stabilize the fuel export and increase the role of decentralized gas heating in the thermal balance of Russia till 2025. At the third stage (till 2040), we should degasify the electric power sector, replace gas power plants by nuclear power plants, reduce the fuel export to the level ensuring its economy through defasification, energy saving  and economy restructuring. And, at last, we should form all the attributes of the nuclear fuel cycle for the safety and efficiency of the large-scale nuclear power industry,” Rachkov said.

In their draft recommendations to the Russian Government, the participants of the hearings point out the necessity of adopting a federal law for regulating the preparation and application of current and long-term fuel-energy balances of Russia and the Russian regions.

The recommendations also suggest quickly drafting methodology of regional fuel-energy balance preparation, speeding up the adoption of the resolution on the order of formation and functioning of the state system of forecasting the volume of electricity (capacity) on the electricity (capacity) markets and the shortage of power generating capacities in the electric power sector of the Russian Federation as well as adopting urgent measures for improving the system of energy statistics.