Forecast document “Target vision for the development of the Russian electric power industry for the period up to 2030” was developed at the end of 2006 under the leadership of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.E. Sheindlin by leading energy institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the individual involvement of a number of academicians and other specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other organizations of the country in the field of energy.
The work was commissioned by RAO UES of Russia, however, it contains independent assessments of the state and prospects for the development of the country's energy sector. Any forecast document in the field of energy development for a long period should be based on analysis, forecasts and development goals of the country as a whole. Unfortunately, today in Russia there is no clearly formulated economic policy, and short-term private, corporate and (less often) state interests dominate over long-term ones.
Due to the inevitable uncertainty in these conditions in the accepted premises, forecasts for the country's development are possible only in scenario options.
In accordance with the technical specifications of RAO UES of Russia, the following options were taken: electricity generation in the amount of 2000 and 3000 billion kWh per year. Subsequent analysis showed that electricity production in the amount of 3000 billion kWh per year for this period is excessive, not adequately provided with either personnel or economic resources. Therefore, the materials of the “Target Vision” are focused primarily on achieving production of about 2000 billion kWh in 2030.
The country's rich energy resources and high production potential, created in the second half of the twentieth century, contribute to ensuring a fairly high level of energy security for the country. However, since the beginning of the 90s, the process of moral and physical aging of thermal, nuclear and hydropower equipment, electrical networks, dispatch and technological control has been growing like an avalanche. Worked out project resource half the capacity of thermal power plants, a significant part of the equipment of electrical networks, the efficiency of fuel use at thermal power plants has decreased, it is significantly lower than in modern combined cycle and steam power plants.
IN last years in a number of large regions, primarily in megacities, the shortage of electricity and capacity is rapidly increasing due to the increase in electricity consumption in them, there is a decrease in the reserve of generating capacity, the capacity of electrical networks and the level of system reliability of the UES of Russia as a whole. Consumer demand is not being met. The number of refusals to join networks is increasing. During low winter temperatures, power reserves in the European part of the country and in the Urals decrease several times and do not meet the standards. The country's economy and population are extremely dependent on the reliability of gas supplies from the Tyumen region.
The fuel balance of thermal power plants, in which the share of gas in European energy systems exceeds 80%, in winter and during periods of severe cold weather is not ensured with adequate reliability, primarily due to restrictions imposed by Gazprom. The key task of reducing the dependence of the electricity supply of the European part of Russia on natural gas supplies is to increase the use of coal, which requires analysis and justification of the optimal ratio and methods of transporting primary energy resources and electricity from Siberia.
The distribution of capacities operating in the UES of Russia is asymmetrical: almost all 23.2 GW are concentrated in the European part of the country, and out of 45.6 GW of total capacity, 26.9 GW are located in Siberia and the Far East, which prevents their efficient use and provides the required maneuverability in the European part of the EEC. The lack of high-capacity electrical connections between the European and East Siberian parts of the UES does not allow optimization of operating modes and indicates the incompleteness of the UES infrastructure.
Electricity losses in the industry as a whole exceeded 107 billion kWh, or about 13% of electricity supplied to the network. Their technological component is about 70%, more than 28% are commercial losses. Thus, the Russian energy sector is coming to a new stage of its development rather worn out, insufficiently balanced, in many respects technologically backward and not self-sufficient.
The analysis showed that the level of GDP that should really be targeted when developing economic forecasts until 2030 is about 35,000 dollars/(person year) in 2000 prices, which is close to the current upper level of advanced industrialized countries ( the so-called “golden billion”). Today, the country’s economy relies entirely on raw materials industries and is critically dependent on their exports, with an almost complete loss over the past 15 years of not only competitiveness, but also in a number of industries the very possibility of producing high-tech, knowledge-intensive products, including in the power engineering, electrical, and instrument-making fields, electronics and engine building.
In the long term, for Russia, as for any other country, this is a hopeless path leading to technological degradation, loss of economic and then political independence. This trend must be competently and decisively stopped, first of all, for strategic reasons, despite the inevitable resistance of today’s economic “elite” of the country and pressure from the West. It is strategically advisable to maintain exports only in volumes that meet the country’s domestic investment needs. GDP growth and maintaining the export of energy resources at a level that meets domestic investment needs are impossible without an active, directed and strictly state-controlled energy saving policy both in the field of production and, first of all, consumption of energy resources.
Thus, effective energy development and active energy saving are inseparable components of a single process. In 1998 -1999 The energy intensity of Russia's GDP exceeded the global average by 3.15 times, and that of developed countries by 3.5-3.7 times. For the period 2000-2005. The energy intensity of Russian GDP decreased by 21.4%, and electricity intensity by 19.6%. The “2000” scenario provides for compensation of up to 65% of the required increase in energy consumption and about 60% of electricity consumption through structural restructuring of the economy. Along with the use of the structural factor, in accordance with previously adopted program documents on energy saving, organizational and technological measures to save fuel and energy must be implemented.
As is known, relatively cold countries (Norway, Finland, Canada), countries with extended territories (Canada, USA, Australia), and countries that spend a lot of energy on transporting fuel and energy resources (USA) have 1.7-2.3 times higher GDP specific energy consumption index than European countries and Japan. Considering the unfavorable geographical conditions of Russia (climate, length of territory), even with the most vigorous efforts in the field of energy saving and structural transformations of the economy, the desire to reach a level of specific energy consumption below 0.35 tce/1000 dollars in 2030 is unlikely to be realized. GDP. (Note that the level of the USA and Canada in 2000 is 0.33 and 0.45 tce/1000 dollars of GDP, respectively.) In view of the upcoming sharp reduction in the working-age population, the required GDP growth can only be achieved with a sharp increase labor productivity, ensured by fairly high power consumption at the level of 0.32 -0.34 kWh/dollar. GDP, which will correspond to reaching a GDP level of 35,000-37,000 dollars/(person year) by 2030 in 2000 prices with the required electricity generation of about 1800-2000 billion kWh/year. The possibility of such an average GDP growth of 5.9-6% per year for 25 years seems to be quite a difficult task, and the indicated figures are extreme and difficult to achieve.
Cumulative indicators of the development of electrical and thermal energy production are shown in Fig. 1 and in table. 1. Note that the increase in heat supply is significantly less than the increase in electricity generation. Despite the significantly different rates of economic and social development of individual regions (to a certain extent coinciding with the Federal Districts), the ratio of the contributions of these enlarged regions to the production and consumption of GDP, as well as electricity generation, will not undergo radical changes. Modern high-tech industries will develop more intensively in the European part of the country, and energy-intensive and raw materials industries - in Siberia. The total capacity of the country's power plants required to generate 2000 billion kWh in 2030 is 370-380 GW, of which about 70 GW should be installed at hydroelectric power plants and about the same amount. Of the 2000 billion kWh of electricity, 530-550 billion kWh should be generated at (27%), 250 billion kWh at (12-13%), the rest at thermal power plants (Fig. 2). The contribution of power plants using , will be small, although their role in autonomous energy supply will increase significantly.
According to the forecast of the structure of the fuel balance of the electric power industry in 2030. To ensure the necessary electricity generation at thermal power plants, 340-360 million tons of fuel equivalent will be required. organic fuel. At the same time, the development of nuclear energy is acquiring an extremely important role for closing the fuel balance of the European part of the country; The role of hydropower is equally high for Siberia and the Far East. In fact, the European part of the country and the Urals are and will remain acutely deficient in terms of fuel supplies, regions whose situation in a market economy differs little from most European countries. The presence of restrictions on the supply of natural gas for energy needs predetermines an increase in the share of coal in the fuel balance of power plants (up to 29% in 2030). In general, fossil fuel reserves in Russia are quite large.
We have not yet moved beyond their initial use. However, by approximately 2012 for oil and by 2015-2020. for gas, it is mandatory to introduce new fields (located in less accessible areas and less economically profitable). The volume of geological exploration work for oil and gas should be sharply increased. In the European part of the country, attention should be paid to the feasibility of using numerous sources of local fuel (shale, local coal, small gas deposits). It is important to emphasize that due to the inertia of commissioning the necessary capacities at and the lack of preparation for the rapid commissioning of highly efficient coal-fired thermal power plants before 2010, in order to overcome today's shortages in the supply of electricity, the forced commissioning of combined cycle gas turbine units and, accordingly, a slight increase in gas supplies to the energy sector is extremely important. When assessing the development of nuclear energy, the possibility of extending the life of existing ones to 45 years was taken into account. At the same time, in 2030, out of the current 23 GW of capacity, 10 GW will remain in operation. The vast majority of new stations need to be built in the European part of the country. The total capacity will reach ~ 70 GW.
Starting from 2012, VVER-1000 reactors will be replaced by modified reactors with a power of about 1240 MW (the so-called AES-2006 project), and a few years later - VVER-1500-1600 reactors. To accommodate new capacities, it is advisable to use the sites planned in the 80s. To ensure a more complete load (increase in capacity factor), it is advisable to accompany their construction with the commissioning of pumped storage stations, the possible locations of which are known today. Capacity by 2030 should be increased by approximately 1.5 times and reach a level of 65 GW (including, after appropriate reconstruction, approximately 46 GW will remain at existing hydroelectric power plants). Almost all of the commissioning of new capacity should take place in the Siberian and Far Eastern regions. In the European part, where the potential of hydropower has been exhausted to a certain extent, cascades will be built relatively low power in the Caucasus and Karelia.
To supply power to the European part, it is planned to build Turukhanskaya (Evenkiskaya) on the Lower Tunguska River with a capacity of up to 12 GW, connected by a 750 kV direct current line to the network of the European part of the country. In total, it is planned to increase the transmission to the European part via two power lines to 120 billion kWh of electricity. Large ones should be built on the Angara and in the Buryat-Chita region to ensure energy-intensive production in the region and partially for export. There is a need for large-scale construction of pumped storage stations in the European part with a total capacity of about 10 GW (3-4 GW in the near future), which will provide economical daily load regulation in the network and will facilitate the operation of nuclear power plants in basic mode.
Today, thermal power plants play a dominant role in the country's electricity production. Their capacity is approaching 140 GW, of which more than 95 GW are natural gas-fired plants and approximately 45 GW are gas-fired plants. solid fuel. It is characterized by a high share (about 55% of the installed capacity of thermal power plants) as a result of the course consistently implemented over many years for the combined production of heat and electricity. By 2030, it is necessary to replace all the main equipment of thermal power plants operating today. The dominant role of thermal energy will remain, just as the predominance of thermal power plants using natural gas will remain in the European part of the country.
Significantly higher efficiency combined cycle gas plants(CCP) will allow generating more power with the same consumption of natural gas, and the low specific volume of the main building for CCGT units with a capacity of 170-540 MW (0.7-0.65 m3/kW) will allow them to be placed in the main buildings previously occupied by condensing units 100 -200-300-500 MW (with a specific volume of 1.0-0.725 m3/kW). That is, when creating new powerful gas-fired CPPs, the sites, infrastructure and buildings of existing GRES should be actively used while maintaining or very moderately increasing natural gas consumption.
New and reconstructed coal blocks in the European part of the country, due to fuel shortages in this region, should be focused on the use of super-supercritical steam (SSCP). When constructing stations in Siberia using cheap coal, it is advisable, for technical and economic reasons, to use the established supercritical pressure (SCP) parameters using modernized, more efficient main and auxiliary equipment. The capacity of newly constructed coal plants in the European part of the country in the scenario of producing 2 trillion kWh of electricity should be 1015 GW (with a capacity of -70 GW, an increase in gas consumption by 15% and the transmission of about 15 GW of power via power lines from the eastern regions). If we talk about developing the potential of KATEK, then, along with the construction of CPP SKD (here, also for technical and economic reasons, it is apparently advisable to focus on SKD parameters), it is advisable to develop energy technology complexes with the generation, along with electricity, of motor fuel and other valuable products. In technical and economic terms, these installations are the most profitable.
In all cases, with widespread use on initial stage imported and licensed equipment (CCGT, fluidized bed boilers, etc.), the production of domestic equipment of this class should be accelerated. It should be emphasized that the focus on mass purchases of basic power equipment abroad carries the danger of complete liquidation of the domestic power engineering industry. Calculations show the feasibility of increasing gas supplies to power plants in the European part of the country in a volume exceeding today’s by 15-20%. Otherwise, most likely, it will be necessary to increase the input of capacity at nuclear power plants. An important question is the problem of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) and participation in the Kyoto Protocol. This problem can find the right solution only taking into account the general political situation in the world.
Increased activity in this issue given the scientifically unproven connection between climate warming and greenhouse gas emissions (note that for Russia the climate as a whole will change in a favorable direction) and the Kyoto Protocol being ignored by the USA, China and India - the countries that produce the largest CO2 emissions - is unlikely whether it meets the interests of Russia. In Russia, district heating systems (DHS) have been operating for more than 70 years. The maximum rate of development of MCTs in Russia occurred in the 50s-80s of the twentieth century, when they became the largest life-sustaining engineering systems cities. In 2000, 63.2 out of 131.4 GW of electric power of thermal power plants were concentrated on it.
In the country as a whole, about 4.1 out of 8.7 billion GJ of heat was supplied to the central heating system, approximately two-thirds of which went to industrial needs. According to the forecast, the annual heat supply from centralized sources (their share in the total heat supply exceeds 80%) may increase by 1.5-1.8 times compared to 2000: from 1425 million Gcal in 2000 to 2050 Gcal in 2030. It is necessary to take into account that in the future, the main type of fuel in the central heating system, due to environmental conditions, will remain, as at present, natural gas, the high efficiency of its use is considered as one of the key tasks in the production of electricity and heat. The operating conditions of individual systems vary dramatically, and solutions for their modernization must be individualized. In this case, the emphasis should be placed on optimizing heat supply schemes and heat supply modes using all its sources (CHP, district boiler houses, small heat producers).
Thermal distribution networks connecting with consumers have been created for many decades and huge amounts of money have been invested in them. It is economically unrealistic (and irrational) to change the structure of the centralized heat supply of a large urban settlement in a short time; all heat supply sources must be used wisely. For newly created heat supply sources, the emphasis should be placed on gas turbine combined heat and power plants of moderate power (including superstructures of existing hot water boilers of district heating stations - RTS), and in such a way that, as a first approximation, the amount of heat from the gas turbine exhaust gases covers the hot water supply load year-round, and the heating load was provided by burning additional fuel. These GTU-CHPs should be as close to the consumer as possible.
The large-scale use of heating systems and hot water supply (DHW) based on heat pumps is recommended, primarily in large cities where there are many sources of low-grade heat. Issues related to electricity generation were discussed above. No less acute are the problems of its transmission and distribution. The Unified National Energy System (UNES) unites the Russian energy sector, ensuring parallel operation of the main power plants and load nodes, and connects the Unified Energy System of Russia with the energy systems of other countries. Currently, the UNEG includes electrical networks with a voltage of 330-750 kV and, in accordance with approved criteria, part of the power lines with a voltage of 220 kV.
Essentially, the UNEG is the main system-forming electrical network, that is, it includes all intersystem connections and main electrical power transmission lines. Today, the UNEG provides, in general, a fairly high level of reliability of energy supply to consumers and operational stability. However, there are a number of acute problems in their functioning, related both to their technological state and to new forms of network functioning in market conditions. The main technological problems include the following:
A large amount of morally and physically obsolete equipment of power lines and substations.
Insufficient capacity of intersystem and system-forming electrical networks, due to which power flows are close to or reach maximum values, and a number of energy capacities (Unified Power System of Siberia, Unified Power System of the Middle Volga and Center) remain unused.
Poor controllability of the electrical network and insufficient volume and quality of control and reactive power devices.
A progressive lag behind developed countries in a number of technologies and in the technical level of certain types of network equipment and management systems, low degree of automation of network facilities.
Outdated regulatory framework. When developing the “Vision”, two scenarios for the development of the main electrical network of the UES of Russia were considered: the first is the development of power transmission only on alternating current in accordance with the currently used voltage scales of 330-750 kV (zone of the North-West, partly the Center and South) and 220-500- 1150 kV (the rest of the UES of Russia); the second is the use of direct current transmissions (DCT) for the delivery of power to remote generating nodes and for intersystem electrical connections (IEC) at the level of the Unified Energy System of Russia.
The resulting structures of the main electrical network for each of the options are presented in Fig. 3 and 4. The 750 kV network should be developed in the European part of the Unified Energy System of Russia to strengthen connections between the IPS of the North-West and the Center, and supply power to nuclear power plants located in this zone. 500 kV networks should be used to connect the IPS of the East to the UPS of Russia, strengthen the main network in the IPS of the North Caucasus, Center, Volga region, Urals, Siberia and the East, as well as develop intersystem connections between regional IPS, primarily between the IPS of the North Caucasus and Center, UES of Center, Volga region and Urals. The main trends in the development of 220 kV networks, widespread in most power systems, are to strengthen their distribution functions, reduce the length of sections, increase the density of electrical networks in order to increase the reliability of power supply to consumers and the delivery of power to small and medium-sized power plants.
The main direction in the development of the 110 kV network will be their further coverage of the territory of Russia in order to increase the reliability of power supply to consumers. The use of power transmission lines and DC inserts can in the future be considered as a means of transporting large flows of electricity over long distances along these lines and creating controllable elements in ring AC networks, which, together with the widespread use of FACTS devices, will significantly increase the controllability of the UES of Russia.
To supply Turukhanskaya power, a direct current power line is needed to the west to the Ural IPS and further to the Center IPS, to the south to the Krasnoyarsk region and to the southeast to the Ust-Ilimsk hydroelectric station. It is necessary to restore the connection between the IPS of Siberia and the IPS of the Urals and the IPS of Northern Kazakhstan, which was in effect until the early 90s. The issue of a powerful connection between the IPS of Siberia and the IPS of the Urals, passing through the territory of Russia, including a direct current option, should also be considered. This issue should be considered in the context of problems of increasing the share of coal in the energy sector and optimizing options for using Kuzbass coal, taking into account transport capabilities.
As a result, the main electrical network in the European part of the Unified Energy System of Russia, including the Urals, will be a developed network of 220 (330) - 500 (750) kV with DC power line receiving substations from the Turukhanskaya HPP. The main electrical network of the UPS of Siberia and the East will be a developed basic configuration of 220-500 kV power lines mainly in the latitudinal direction with DC power line receiving substations in the area of Krasnoyarsk and Ust-Ilimskaya from the Turukhanskaya HPP.
The main provisions for ensuring the reliable operation of the UES of Russia are as follows:
Adapting the reliability problem to market conditions, putting into effect economic mechanisms for managing reliability and ensuring the priority of reliability over market obligations in the event of a threat of disruption or disruption of power supply, implementation technical expertise all market models with verification of their impact on the reliability of energy supply;
Ensuring the safety of life support systems of cities (megacities) in the event of a disruption of their power supply, including through self-reservation of responsible consumers;
Ensuring the sustainability of the operation of power plants when they are separated from the energy system for local load, including maintaining their own needs;
Ensuring the ability of the UES to withstand design disturbances without compromising system reliability and the reliability of power supply to end consumers;
Developing an alternative to the principle of joint responsibility for reliability on a regional basis, which existed in the pre-reform period. Estimates of required throughput electrical connections in the UES are given in table. 2. The key issue in the implementation of any strategy for increasing electricity production is the capabilities of power engineering. The Vision defines the scale of required production of energy equipment by year to produce 2 trillion kWh of electricity in 2030.
At the final stage, production per year will be required:
Three reactor units of the VVER-1500 type;
Up to 8 GW steam turbines for thermal power plants;
Approximately 4.5 GW of steam turbines for nuclear power plants;
4.5-5 GW of gas turbines;
About 1.3 GW of hydro turbines;
The total number of steam boilers is 20-22 thousand tons of steam per hour.
These figures do not take into account the volumes required to modernize the equipment remaining in operation. With a major modernization and complete restoration of the production capacity of existing power engineering plants, it seems possible to ensure the production and supply of equipment across the entire line and in the quantity necessary to generate 2 trillion kWh of electricity per year.
At the same time, it seems appropriate to create, on the basis of one or two modern aircraft engine factories that have full-fledged design bureaus and master modern gas turbine construction technologies, associations for the production of modern high-power gas turbines for the energy sector. Additionally, at the municipal level, 0.7-1.2 GW of power will have to be introduced annually in the form of 15-30 MW of gas turbine superstructures of boiler houses (district heat supply stations). The production of electric generators should reach 13 -15 GW per year. Organizing the production of electrical equipment based on field-effect transistors to ensure reliable, economical and flexible operation of electrical networks, the element base of modern automated process control systems and a number of other items of power and electrical equipment requires special efforts.
To create the generating capacities and corresponding electrical networks necessary to generate 2000 billion kWh of electricity in 2030, significant investments will be required. The estimate of total investments is given in table. 3. The value of specific capital costs was selected on the basis of existing world prices and trends in their changes, taking into account the cost of labor in Russia. There are potentially several ways to invest. The “Vision” discusses three of them: at the expense of a private investor; through additional issue of shares; due to the advanced investment component of the tariff through a special investment fund.
The most expensive is the first way, since banks request a high interest rate on borrowed capital (12%), and a private investor requires an accelerated return of capital (in 10 years or less). As a result, the annual investment component of the cost of electricity generation costs lies in the range of 18-27% of specific capital costs, which leads (with the number of hours of use of the maximum installed capacity of 6000) to the “investment component” of the cost of electricity generation of 4.2 cents/(kWh ). The “investment component” of the cost of electricity generation is somewhat smaller (~3.4 cents/(kWh)) in the option with an additional issue of shares, where about 13% of specific capital costs are annually allocated to the cost of electricity production.
Both of the above figures are quite large. In addition, both options are fraught with hidden dangers. The cost of electricity generation cannot be increased only for newly introduced units or for the stations where they are installed. Old stations with a very low depreciation component of costs in the cost of electricity generation will also “catch up” to approximately the same selling price. That is, in the conditions of the existence or threat of a power shortage and uncontrolled liberalization of the electricity market, objective conditions are created for obtaining excess profits and unjustified withdrawal of funds from the consumer.
Note that, in addition, in the option with an additional issue of shares, due to the extremely undervalued authorized capital and capitalization of existing stations, the person who bought an additional stake becomes the owner of a disproportionately large share of the total cost of the station and, accordingly, the recipient of a disproportionately high share of income. The least expensive is the third way, when the tariff includes only the corresponding annual share of the necessary investments (in in this case“investment component” is ~1.6 cents/(kWh)).
The state must form a special Investment Fund from this component and exercise control over its expenditure. It should be especially emphasized that, under all circumstances, the restoration of the industry’s human resources potential will have a decisive (one might say, critical) role in the implementation of the strategy. Without taking extraordinary measures, qualified personnel potential (scientific, design, installation, production) will be completely lost in the next 5 years. To solve the problems listed above, it is necessary to develop a special mobilization program, the implementation of which should be entrusted to a special government body with power and financial capabilities. In addition to administrative and coordinating functions, this body must promptly resolve problems, including those related to financial support, provided for by the program.
The state must assume the following functions:
— a guarantee of balanced and self-sufficient development of the country’s electric power industry, capable of meeting society’s needs for electrical and thermal energy both in the short and long term;
— management of the development of goal-setting principles and scientific foundations for the functioning of the energy sector, forecasting its development, determining basic quantitative indicators, fundamental approaches to the formation of energy balances;
— improving the regulatory framework for the energy sector, developing national standards relating to the production, supply and consumption of electricity and heat in a market economy;
— coordination of work on the optimal placement of generating capacities, optimization of the unified energy system of Russia, ensuring the reliability of its functioning;
— ensuring environmental policy;
— ensuring the training of scientific and engineering personnel in the energy sector (including nuclear energy), power engineering, electrical and related industries, highly qualified workers in power engineering, installation and construction organizations;
— provision of R&D, development of relevant industry and academic research institutes, creation of pilot and pilot industrial installations and financing of their work;
— restoration and rise of the domestic power engineering industry; equity (at least 50%) participation in the development of new technology;
— legislative, organizational, scientific and partly financial support for energy saving policy, which is an inseparable component of energy development plans;
— creating favorable conditions for investments in the energy sector, taking into account a long payback period;
— development and implementation of pricing policy in the energy sector aimed at improving the structure of the fuel balance and tariffs for products sold. Control of the amount and expenditure of the investment component of tariffs;
— ensuring the safety of nuclear energy. In November 2000, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the Energy Strategy of Russia for the period until 2020, its revised version was approved by the Government of the Russian Federation on May 22, 2003.
The general (macroeconomic) indicators of the Strategy are fulfilled in excess of the highest of the four development scenarios considered in it. This concerns the growth of GDP and the volume of industrial production (in monetary terms), a decrease in the energy intensity of GDP and some other indices.
At the same time, all of the above positive changes have one main source - a gigantic increase in prices for exported oil (primarily) and gas, unexpected for everyone, and a noticeable increase in the physical volume of energy exports against that provided for in the Strategy, and structural changes in the economy, expressed in a change in the ratio The share of GDP produced in the service sector and in the manufacturing sector in favor of the former, along with the closure of unprofitable industries, is due to the ongoing stagnation of the manufacturing sector, with the exception of the fuel-extracting industries and metallurgy. As a result, the growth of macroeconomic indicators is combined with the slow recovery of mechanical engineering, the growing lag behind instrument making and, in general, knowledge-intensive, innovative industries, is not supported by the introduction of new capacities and large-scale reconstruction of existing production facilities, exploration and development of new deposits, and is accompanied by complete neglect of development scientific research and education. All of the above fully applies to energy and the power engineering and science that provides it.
Belated efforts to urgently commission new generating capacities and networks in all its key elements (gas turbines, modern boilers with CFB, alloy steels for boilers, automation, semiconductor devices for networks, many items of auxiliary equipment) are based on large-scale purchases of foreign equipment, the transformation of domestic enterprises into “screwdriver” production, and involve spending 1.5-2 times inflated investments for these purposes . This specific condition - decent macroscopic indicators in the face of actual devastation - required a new consideration of the state of energy and its prospects. The presented “Vision” takes into account positive sides An energy strategy, many of whose general provisions and specific figures correlate well with the “Vision”. At the same time, these two documents diverge mainly in ways to solve the problem.
If the Energy Strategy sees these ways in “the formation of a civilized energy market and non-discriminatory economic relationships between its subjects between themselves and the state, while the state, limiting its functions as an economic entity, strengthens its role in the formation of infrastructure as a regulator of market relations,” then “ Vision” believes that today the role of the state in the implementation of energy tasks should be decisive and not limited only to the creation of a favorable climate.
Electric power, thermal and nuclear." First, we will remember what the electric power industry is and what role it plays in the life support of the country. Next, let's look at electricity production in Russia. Let's get acquainted with thermal and nuclear power plants, and discuss their similarities and differences, advantages and disadvantages.
Topic: General characteristics of the Russian economy
Lesson: Electric power engineering. Thermal and nuclear energy
Electric power industry - this is part of the fuel and energy complex, which is engaged in the production of electrical energy and its transmission to the consumer.
The importance of the electric power industry is very great in the economy of the country and its people. The development of production and ensuring the livelihoods of the population depend on the electric power industry. It affects the territorial location of industry. Russia ranks fourth in the world in electricity production, behind the USA, Japan, and China.
Rice. 1. Leading countries in electricity production
In Russia, electricity is produced at four types of power plants: thermal, hydraulic, nuclear and power plants using alternative energy sources.
Rice. 2. Electricity production in Russia at power plants of various types
The largest amount of electricity is produced at thermal power plants. They are the most common type of power plants in Russia. Thermal power plants- these are the oldest power plants in Russia.
Rice. 3. Thermal power plants
For their operation, power plants use: coal, natural gas, fuel oil, shale, peat. In this case, thermal energy is converted into electrical energy. Thermal power plants have a large number of disadvantages: thermal power plants for their operation require a huge amount of labor resources, which are necessary to maintain these stations; the resources used by thermal power plants are exhaustible and non-renewable; thermal power plants are very poorly regulated and take a very long time to stop and start; In addition, when fuel burns, a lot of harmful substances, which go into the atmosphere, so power plants are the main air pollutant. But thermal power plants have great advantages that make them the most common in Russia and in the world. They are very easy and quick to construct, generate electricity year-round without seasonal fluctuations in the amount of generated electricity, in addition, they can be built both at the source of raw materials and near the consumer.
Thermal power plants are of two types: condensation And combined heat and power plants. Condensing power plants are the most popular. If they serve large areas and generate large amounts of electricity, then they are called state district power plants or state district power plants. In the European part of Russia, state district power plants often use fuel oil and coal.
Rice. 4. Reftinskaya GRES
Combined heat and power plants are a type of station that produces not only electrical energy, but also produces heat, which is directed to the consumer.
Rice. 5. Combined heat and power plant (CHP)
The peculiarity of the geography of thermal power engineering is that they are located everywhere. The largest are Surgutskaya GRES, Kostromskaya GRES and Reftinskaya GRES.
Rice. 6. Thermal power plants of Russia ()
Nuclear power plants - this is the second type of power plants that produce electricity in Russia. The first nuclear power plant was built in 1954 in the city of Obninsk.
Rice. 7. Nuclear power plant (NPP)
Currently, nuclear power plants produce 15% of electricity in Russia. Compared to thermal power plants, nuclear power plants have a number of advantages: they do not require constant and large supplies of fuel, because one kilogram of uranium replaces 2,500 tons of coal, this type of power plants is conveniently located in electrically deficient places and remote areas, and during trouble-free operation, nuclear power plants have little impact on the environment Wednesday. The method of operation of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl and the Fukushima station has shown that this type of power plant has a number of disadvantages, first of all, the severe consequences that occur after accidents at nuclear power plants. In addition, technologies for recycling waste generated during the operation of nuclear power plants have not yet been developed. The stations are poorly regulated: it takes several weeks for them to stop and start.
Rice. 8. Operating power plants in Russia ( ) There are currently 10 nuclear power plants operating in Russia. The main part of the power plants is located in the European part of the country - these are the Novovoronezh NPP, the Leningrad NPP, the Beloyarsk NPP is located in the Urals, the Kola NPP is located in the north of the European part, and the Bilibino NPP is in Chukotka.
- V.P. Dronov, V.Ya. Rum. Geography of Russia: population and economy. 9th grade.
- V.P. Dronov, I.I. Barinova, V.Ya. Rom, A.A. Loyuzhanidze. Geography of Russia: economy and geographical areas. 9th grade.
- How it's done, how it works (). How does a thermal power plant work?
- RIA News (). How does a nuclear power plant work?
- Wikipedia (). NPP operation diagram
- RIA News (). Consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
- Unified collection of digital educational resources (). Fuel and energy complex: Energy industry
Knowledge of the history of the development of the electric power industry helps to understand the logic of choosing the direction of its development, the nature of the problems it faces and possible ways to solve them.
The formation of the electric power industry as an independent branch of industry and economy
The history of science and technology dates back to the development of the electric power industry since 1891, when a three-phase power transmission system was tested at the international electrical exhibition in Frankfurt am Main.
At the Laufen hydroelectric power station, electrical energy was generated by a hydraulic unit consisting of a turbine, a bevel gear and a three-phase synchronous generator (power 230 kVA, rotation speed 150 rpm, voltage 95 V, star connection of the windings). Laufen and Frankfurt each had three transformers immersed in tanks filled with oil.
The three-wire line was made on wooden supports with an average span of about 60 m. A copper wire with a diameter of 4 mm was attached to porcelain-oil pin insulators. An interesting detail of the line was the installation of fuses on the high voltage side: at the beginning of the line, a 2.5 m long section consisting of two copper wires with a diameter of 0.15 mm each was included in the break of each wire. To disconnect the line in Frankfurt, a three-phase connection was installed using a simple device short circuit, the fusible links burned out, the turbine began to develop high speed, and the driver, noticing this, stopped it.
A step-down transformer was installed at the exhibition site in Frankfurt, from which 1000 incandescent lamps located on a huge panel were powered at a voltage of 65 V. A Dolivo-Dobrovolsky three-phase asynchronous motor was also installed here, driving a hydraulic pump with a power of about 100 hp. s., feeding a small artificial waterfall. Simultaneously with this powerful engine, M.O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky exhibited an asynchronous three-phase motor with a power of about 100 W with a fan on its shaft and a 1.5 kW motor with a DC generator sitting on its shaft.
Power transmission tests carried out by the International Commission gave the following results: minimum power transmission efficiency (the ratio of the power at the secondary terminals of the transformer in Frankfurt to the power at the turbine shaft in Laufen) - 68.5%, maximum - 75.2% at a line voltage of about 15 kV , and at a voltage of 25.1 kV the maximum efficiency was 78.9%.
The results of the Laufen-Frankfurt power transmission tests not only demonstrated the possibility of transmitting energy over long distances in the form of electrical energy, but also put an end to the long-standing debate between supporters of direct or alternating current in favor of alternating current.
Creation of a three-phase system - the most important stage in the development of the power industry and electrification. After the closing of the Frankfurt Exhibition, the power plant in Laufen became the property of the city of Heilborn, located 12 km from Laufen, and was put into operation at the beginning of 1892. Electricity was used to power the entire city lighting network, as well as a number of small factories and workshops. Step-down transformers were installed directly at consumers.
Also in 1892, the Bülach-Oerlikon line (Switzerland) was put into operation. Electricity generated by a hydroelectric power plant with thundering three-phase generators with a capacity of 150 kW each, built at the waterfall in Bülach, was transmitted over a distance of 23 km to power the plant.
Following these first installations, a number of power plants were built in a short time; the largest number of them were in Germany.
In the USA (in California), the first three-phase installation was built at the end of 1893. The pace of implementation of the three-phase system in America was initially noticeably lower than in Europe, due to the persistent attempts of one of the largest American companies - the Wsstinghouse company - to develop work on the construction of power plants and electrical networks using the Tesla system, i.e. two-phase.
The transition period in any field of technology is characterized by attempts to combine obsolete and new technical solutions. Thus, for almost two decades, attempts have been made to “reconcile” three-phase systems with other systems. During these years, there were power plants that simultaneously operated generators of direct, alternating single-phase, two-phase and three-phase current, or any combination of them. Voltages and frequencies were different, consumers were powered via separate lines. Attempts to save aging systems, and with them electrical equipment mastered by factories, led to the creation of combined systems.
But already starting from 1901-1905. Mostly three-phase power plants are being built, which at first were predominantly factory-type stations. Three-phase technology made it possible to build large power plants at the site of fuel extraction or on a suitable river, and transport the generated energy via power lines to industrial areas and cities. Such power plants began to be called district ones.
The first regional power plants were built in the second half of the 90s. XIX century, and in the next century they formed the basis for the development of the electric power industry. The Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station is considered the first regional power plant. The construction of such power plants has become widespread since the beginning of the 20th century. This was facilitated by an increase in electricity consumption associated with the introduction of electric drives into industry, the development of electric transport and electric lighting of cities. Electric stations became large industrial enterprises, networks of different stations were united, and the first energy systems were created. The energy system began to be understood as a set of power plants, power transmission lines, substations and heating networks connected by the commonality of the regime and the continuity of the process of production and distribution of electrical and thermal energy.
The need to combine the work of several power plants into a common network began to appear already in the 90s. XIX century It is due to the fact that when working together it decreases necessary reserve at each station separately, it becomes possible to repair equipment without disconnecting the main consumers, conditions are created for leveling the load schedule of base stations in order to more efficiently use energy resources. The first known combination of two three-phase power plants was carried out in 1892 in Switzerland.
Russian electrical engineers were able to quickly appreciate the advantages of a three-phase system. Already in January 1892, at the 4th St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Exhibition, two three-phase machines of the Dolivo-Dobrovolsky system with a power of 15 kW were demonstrated. In Russia, the first enterprise with three-phase power supply was the Novorossiysk elevator. It was a huge structure, and the problem of distributing energy across its floors and various buildings could be solved the best way only using electricity. The elevator was electrified in 1893. All machines based on designs developed abroad were manufactured in the elevator's own workshops. At the power plant, built next to the elevator, four synchronous generator with a power of 300 kW each. At that time it was the most powerful three-phase power plant in the world. Three-phase motors with a power of 3.5-15.0 kW operated in the elevator premises, which drove various machines and mechanisms. Some of the energy was used for lighting.
The first power transmission line of significant length in Russia was built at the Pavlovsky mine of the Lensky gold mining region in Siberia. At the power station built in 1896 on the river. Nygra, a three-phase generator (98 kW, 600 rpm, 140 V) and a transformer of appropriate power were installed, increasing the voltage to 10 kV. Electricity was transmitted to a mine located 21 km from the station. At the mine, three-phase units were used to drive drainage devices. asynchronous motors power 6.5-25.0 l. With. (voltage 260 V). Since 1897, electrification of large cities began: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kyiv, Riga, Kharkov, etc.
It is interesting to note that during the rapid development of three-phase high voltage power transmission (up to 150 kV) M.O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, on the basis of technical and economic calculations, came to the conclusion that when transmitting energy over several hundred kilometers at a voltage of over 200 kV, it is advisable to generate and distribute energy using alternating current, and transmission using high-voltage direct current. The DC line at the beginning and at the end must be connected to converter substations where mercury rectifiers are installed. He came to this conclusion without even knowing about such a problem for high-power AC transmission lines as stability.
Today, his prediction has come true, and UHVDC transmission lines are successfully operating in many countries (for more details, see 11.6). In Fig. 1.1 and 1.2 show the dynamics of growth in the operating voltage of overhead transmission lines of alternating and direct current.
Rice. 1.1.
(record) voltage classes
Rice. 1.2.
(record) khours of voltage
Further development of the electric power industry in our country took place in several stages:
- connecting power plants for parallel operation and forming the first power systems;
- formation of territorial associations of energy systems (UPS);
- creation of the Unified Energy System (UES);
- functioning of the Unified Energy System of Russia after the formation of independent states on the territory of the former USSR.
The basis for the creation of energy systems in our country was laid by the State Plan for the Electrification of Russia (GOELRO), approved in 1920. This plan provided for the centralization of electricity supply through the construction of large power plants and electrical networks with their consistent integration into energy systems. The GOELRO plan also provided for the comprehensive development of the domestic electrical industry, liberating it from the dominance of foreign capital, the share of which was in it in the early 20s. 70%. To resolve all issues of electrical engineering and train highly qualified specialists, the State Experimental Electrotechnical Institute was created in October 1921, which was later renamed the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI).
Under the leadership of the leading members of the GOELRO commission (head G.M. Krzhizhanovsky), a number of power plants and power lines were designed and built: Shaturskaya GRES (power 48 MW, commissioned in 1925), Volkhovskaya HPP (66 MW, 1926) , Nizhnesvirskaya HPP (90 MW, 1933), Dnieper HPP (580 MW, 1932). The Dnieper hydroelectric power station was at that time the largest in Europe.
The first power systems - Moscow and Petrograd - were created in 1921. In 1922, the first power transmission line with a voltage of 110 kV Kashirskaya GRES - Moscow, 120 km long, was put into operation in the Moscow power system, and in 1933 a power transmission line with a voltage of 220 kV Nizhnesvirskaya HPP was launched - Leningrad. (The first 220 kV line in France was built only six months earlier). New energy systems were formed: Donbass (1926), Ivanovo (1928), Rostov (1929), etc.
Over the 15-year period, the GOELRO plan was significantly exceeded. The installed capacity of the country's power plants in 1935 was 6.9 million kW, and annual electricity production reached 26.8 billion kWh. For electricity production Soviet Union took second place in Europe and third in the world.
The process of unifying energy systems began in the first half of the 1930s. from the creation of networks of 110 kV power systems in the areas of the Center and Donbass. In 1940, a joint dispatch service was created to manage the parallel operation of the Upper Volga energy systems (Gorky, Ivanovo and Yaroslavl). In connection with the planned unification of the power systems of the South, the Bureau of the Southern Power System was created in 1938, which was then transformed into the Operational Dispatch Office of the South; in 1940, the first intersystem connection with a voltage of 220 kV Dnepr-Donbass was put into operation.
The capacity of all power plants in the country in 1940 reached 11.2 million kW, electricity generation amounted to 48.3 billion kWh.
The intensive planned development of the electric power industry was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. The relocation of industry in the western regions to the Urals and eastern regions of the country required accelerated development of the energy sector in the Urals, Kazakhstan, Central Siberia, Central Asia, the Volga region, Transcaucasia and the Far East. The electric power industry of the Urals has received especially great development, where electricity production from 1940 to 1945 increased by 2.5 times.
During the war, the electric power industry suffered enormous damage: 61 large power plants and a large number of small ones with a total capacity of 5 million kW were blown up, burned or partially destroyed, i.e. almost half of the capacities installed by that time. 10 thousand km of main high-voltage power lines and a large number of substations were destroyed.
The restoration of the energy sector began already at the end of 1941. In 1942, restoration work was carried out in the central regions of the European part of the USSR, and by 1945 this work spread to the entire liberated territory of the country.
In 1946, the total capacity of the USSR's power plants reached the pre-war level: in 1947, the country in electricity production took first place in Europe and second in the world.
In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant with a capacity of 5 MW was put into operation in Obninsk.
In 1955, the total capacity of power plants reached 37.2 million kW, electricity generation amounted to 170.2 billion kWh.
The transition to the next, qualitatively new stage in the development of the electric power industry was associated with the commissioning of powerful Volzhsky hydroelectric power stations and long-distance power transmission lines of 400-500 kV. In 1956, the first 400 kV power transmission from Kuibyshev (now Samara) to Moscow was put into operation.
The 400 kV Kuibyshev-Moscow power transmission line united the power systems of the Middle Volga, the Kuibyshev-Ural line - with the power systems of the Urals and Urals. This marked the beginning of the unification of the energy systems of various regions and the creation of the Unified Energy System of the European part of the USSR.
During the 60s. the formation of the Unified Energy System of the European part of the USSR was completed, and in 1970 the next stage in the development of the country's electric power industry began - the formation of the Unified Energy System of the USSR consisting of: the Unified Energy System of the Center, the Urals, the Middle Volga, the North-West, the South, the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, which included 63 energy systems; three territorial IPS - Kazakhstan, Siberia and Central Asia worked separately; The UES of the Far East was in its formation stage.
In 1972, the UES of Kazakhstan became part of the UES of the USSR. In 1973, the Bulgarian power system was connected for parallel operation with the USSR Unified Energy System via an interstate connection 400 kV Moldavian State District Power Plant - Vulcanesti-Dobrudzha.
In 1978, with the completion of the construction of the 500 kV transit connection, Siberia-Kazakhstan-Ural joined the parallel operation of the Siberian IPS. In the same year, the construction of the 750 kV interstate connection between Western Ukraine and Albertirsa (Hungary) was completed, and in 1979 the parallel work of the UES of the USSR and the UES of the member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) began.
Electricity was exported from the UES of the USSR networks to the Mongolian People's Republic, Finland, Turkey and Afghanistan; Through a DC converter substation in the Vyborg region, the UES of the USSR connected with the energy association of the Scandinavian countries NORDEL.
Dynamics of the structure of generating capacities in the 70s and 80s. characterized by: the increasing commissioning of capacities at nuclear power plants in the western part of the country and the further commissioning of capacities at highly efficient hydroelectric power stations mainly in the eastern part of the country; the start of work on the first stage of creating the Ekibasguz energy complex; a general increase in the concentration of generating capacities and an increase in the unit capacity of units. The capacity of the largest power plants in Russia currently amounts to: TPP - 4800 MW (Surgutskaya GRES-2), NPP - 4000 MW (Balakovskaya, Leningradskaya, Kurskaya), HPP - 6400 MW (Sayano-Shushenskaya).
Technical progress in the development of backbone networks was characterized by a consistent transition to higher voltage levels. The development of 750 kV voltage began with the commissioning in 1967 of the pilot industrial power transmission Konakovskaya GRES - Moscow. During 1971-1975 In the IPS of the South, a 750 kV latitudinal main line was built Donbass - Dnepr - Vinnitsa - Western Ukraine. In 1975, a 750 kV Leningrad-Konakovo intersystem connection was built, which made it possible to transfer the excess power of the North-West IPS to the IPS Center. To create powerful connections with the eastern part of the UES, it was built main line power transmission 1150 kV Siberia-Kazakhstan-Ural. The construction of a 1500 kV DC power transmission line from Ekibastuz to Tsntr was also started.
In table Table 1.1 shows data on the installed capacity of power plants and the length of electrical networks 220-1150 kV UES of the USSR for the period 1960-1991.
In the post-war years, electrification became the basis of the country's scientific and technological progress. On its basis, there was a continuous improvement of technologies in industry, transport, communications, agriculture and construction, mechanization and automation were carried out production processes. The growth in electricity production in these years outpaced the growth in national income by 1.6 times.
Table 1.1
Growth in the installed capacity of power plants and the length of electrical networks 220-1150 kV UES of the USSR
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Index | |||||||
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Installed power |
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power plants, million kW |
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Highest voltage, kV |
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Length of electrical |
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ical networks, thousand km: |
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Until 1991, the management of the country's electric power industry took place under the conditions of a monopoly of state ownership of all enterprises in the industry. All power plants and power lines belonged to the state and were built at the expense of the state budget. The construction of electric power facilities was carried out according to the criterion of minimum economic costs. This approach to the development of the industry, with full government regulation, minimized production costs. The choice of location for new power plants and their capacity were determined by the availability of fuel and energy resources in the area and the economic feasibility of their use.
Each large power plant was built in such a way as to provide electricity to an area covering several adjacent regions or republics. For such power plants the term “state district” was used power station» - GRES, i.e. a power plant built with public funds, owned by the state and providing electricity to a large area with a radius of up to 500-600 km or more. As a rule, these large condensing-type power plants or nuclear power plants are designed to produce large amounts of electricity. Such power plants were the main producers of electricity within the USSR Unified Energy System.
Thermal energy was produced at the state district power plant in small quantities for the power plant’s own needs and for nearby settlements.
Combined heat and power plants (CHPs), which generate electric and thermal energy using a combined cycle, were located in places where large heat loads are concentrated, such as large industrial enterprises or urban areas. One or more thermal power plants were built in every major city. They provided the population and industry, first of all, with thermal energy, and at the same time with cheap electricity generated from the thermal load.
The efficiency of the electric power industry was ensured by centralized control of the operating modes of power plants and electrical networks, planning and monitoring of their technical and economic indicators. The directive system made it possible to easily implement the redistribution of the economic effect from the activities of various electric power enterprises, based on the interests of the national economy of the country, and economic contradictions between producers and consumers were resolved by the state itself. The consistency of the interests of the development and functioning of individual electric power enterprises during this period was ensured by a unified regulatory framework, which was formed by the central government bodies (Gosplan of the USSR and the Ministry of Energy of the USSR).
The centralized distribution of capital investments in the development and operation of electric power facilities was not directly related to the results of the economic activities of individual enterprises, and the unproductive expenses of unprofitable enterprises were covered by the redistribution of income within the industry itself at the expense of profitable enterprises. Directive management was aimed mainly at achieving planned technical and economic indicators and limited the initiative of enterprises to improve their activities, since the economic effect of successful activities could simply be redistributed in favor of another, unprofitable enterprise. These costs of centralization clearly manifested themselves during the country's transition to a market economy and became the impetus for radical reform of the electricity industry.
Electric power industry is a basic industry, the development of which is an indispensable condition for the development of the economy and other spheres of social life. The world produces about 13,000 billion kW/h, of which the USA alone accounts for up to 25%. Over 60% of the world's electricity is produced at thermal power plants (in the USA, Russia and China - 70-80%), approximately 20% - at hydroelectric power stations, 17% - at nuclear power plants (in France and Belgium - 60%, Sweden and Switzerland - 40-45%).
The most supplied with electricity per capita are Norway (28 thousand kW/h per year), Canada (19 thousand), Sweden (17 thousand).
The electric power industry, together with the fuel industries, including exploration, production, processing and transportation of energy sources, as well as electrical energy itself, forms the most important fuel and energy complex (FEC) for the economy of any country. About 40% of the world's primary energy resources are spent on generating electricity. In a number of countries, the main part of the fuel and energy complex belongs to the state (France, Italy, etc.), but in many countries the main role in the fuel and energy complex is played by mixed capital.
The electric power industry deals with the production of electricity, its transportation and distribution. The peculiarity of the electric power industry is that its products cannot be accumulated for later use: the production of electricity at each moment of time must correspond to the size of consumption, taking into account the needs of the power plants themselves and losses in the networks. Therefore, connections in the electric power industry are constant, continuous and carried out instantly.
Electric power has a great impact on the territorial organization of the economy: it allows for the development of fuel and energy resources in remote eastern and northern regions; the development of main high-voltage lines contributes to a freer location of industrial enterprises; large hydroelectric power plants attract energy-intensive industries; in the eastern regions, the electric power industry is a branch of specialization and serves as the basis for the formation of territorial production complexes.
It is believed that for normal economic development, the growth in electricity production must outpace the growth in production in all other sectors. Most of the generated electricity is consumed by industry. In terms of electricity production (1015.3 billion kWh in 2007), Russia ranks fourth after the USA, Japan and China.
In terms of the scale of electricity production, the following are distinguished: the Central Economic Region (17.8% of all-Russian production), Eastern Siberia(14.7%), Ural (15.3%) and Western Siberia(14.3%). Among the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in electricity generation, the leaders are Moscow and the Moscow region, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, the Irkutsk region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and the Sverdlovsk region. Moreover, the electric power industry of the Center and the Urals is based on imported fuel, while the Siberian regions operate on local energy resources and transmit electricity to other regions.
The electric power industry of modern Russia is mainly represented by thermal power plants operating on natural gas, coal and fuel oil; in recent years, the share of natural gas in the fuel balance of power plants has been increasing. About 1/5 of domestic electricity is generated by hydroelectric power plants and 15% by nuclear power plants.
Thermal power plants operating on low-quality coal, as a rule, gravitate towards the places where it is mined. For fuel oil power plants, it is optimal to locate them near oil refineries. Gas-fired power plants, due to the relatively low costs of its transportation, primarily gravitate towards the consumer. Moreover, first of all, power plants in large and major cities are switched to gas, since it is an environmentally cleaner fuel than coal and fuel oil. Combined heat and power plants (which produce both heat and electricity) gravitate towards the consumer, regardless of the fuel on which they operate (the coolant quickly cools down when transferred over a distance).
The largest thermal power plants with a capacity of more than 3.5 million kW each are Surgutskaya (in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), Reftinskaya (in the Sverdlovsk region) and Kostroma State District Power Plant. Kirishskaya (near St. Petersburg), Ryazanskaya (Central region), Novocherkasskaya and Stavropolskaya (North Caucasus), Zainskaya (Volga region), Reftinskaya and Troitskaya (Urals), Nizhnevartovskaya and Berezovskaya in Siberia have a capacity of more than 2 million kW.
Geothermal power plants, which harness the deep heat of the Earth, are tied to an energy source. In Russia, Pauzhetskaya and Mutnovskaya GTPPs operate in Kamchatka.
Hydroelectric power plants are very efficient sources of electricity. They use renewable resources, are easy to manage and have a very high efficiency (more than 80%). Therefore, the cost of the electricity they produce is 5-6 times lower than at thermal power plants.
It is most economical to build hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) on mountain rivers with a large difference in elevation, while on lowland rivers, large reservoirs must be created to maintain a constant water pressure and reduce dependence on seasonal fluctuations in water volumes. To make fuller use of the hydroelectric potential, cascades of hydroelectric power stations are being built. In Russia, hydropower cascades have been created on the Volga and Kama, Angara and Yenisei. The total capacity of the Volga-Kama cascade is 11.5 million kW. And it includes 11 power plants. The most powerful are Volzhskaya (2.5 million kW) and Volgogradskaya (2.3 million kW). There are also Saratov, Cheboksary, Votkinsk, Ivankovsk, Uglich and others.
Even more powerful (22 million kW) is the Angara-Yenisei cascade, which includes the largest hydroelectric power stations in the country: Sayanskaya (6.4 million kW), Krasnoyarsk (6 million kW), Bratsk (4.6 million kW) , Ust-Ilimskaya (4.3 million kW).
Tidal power plants use the energy of high tides in a bay cut off from the sea. In Russia, there is an experimental Kislogubskaya TPP off the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula.
Nuclear power plants (NPPs) use highly transportable fuel. Considering that 1 kg of uranium replaces 2.5 thousand tons of coal, it is more expedient to locate nuclear power plants near the consumer, primarily in areas deprived of other types of fuel. The world's first nuclear power plant was built in 1954 in Obninsk (Kaluga region). There are currently 8 nuclear power plants in Russia, of which the most powerful are Kursk and Balakovo (Saratov region) with 4 million kW each. In the western regions of the country there are also Kola, Leningrad, Smolensk, Tver, Novovoronezh, Rostov, Beloyarsk. In Chukotka - Bilibino ATPP.
The most important trend in the development of the electric power industry is the integration of power plants in energy systems that produce, transmit and distribute electricity between consumers. They represent a territorial combination of power plants of different types operating at a common load. The integration of power plants into energy systems contributes to the ability to select the most economical load mode for different types of power plants; in conditions of the large extent of the state, the existence of standard time and the mismatch of peak loads in individual parts of such energy systems, it is possible to maneuver the production of electricity in time and space and transfer it as needed in opposite directions.
Currently, the Unified Energy System (UES) of Russia is functioning. It includes numerous power plants in the European part and Siberia, which operate in parallel, in a single mode, concentrating more than 4/5 of the total power of the country’s power plants. In the regions of Russia east of Lake Baikal, small isolated power systems operate.
Russia's energy strategy for the next decade provides for the further development of electrification through the economically and environmentally sound use of thermal power plants, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power plants and non-traditional renewable types of energy, increasing the safety and reliability of existing nuclear power plants.
The industry of any country consists of a large number of diverse sectors, such as mechanical engineering or electrical power. These are the directions in which a particular country is developing, and different countries may have different emphases depending on many factors, such as natural resources, technological development and so on. In this article we will talk about one very important and actively developing industry today - the electric power industry. Electric power is an industry that has been constantly evolving for many years, but it is in recent years that it has begun to actively move forward, pushing humanity to use more environmentally friendly energy sources.
What it is?
So, first of all, you need to understand what this industry actually is. Electric power industry is a division of the energy sector that is responsible for the production, distribution, transmission and sale of electrical energy. Among other industries in this field, the electric power industry is the most popular and widespread for a number of reasons. For example, due to the ease of its distribution, the ability to transmit it over vast distances in the shortest periods of time, and also because of its versatility, electrical energy can be easily transformed, if necessary, into others such as heat, light, chemical energy, and so on. Thus, the governments of world powers pay great attention to the development of this industry. Electrical power is the industry that holds the future. This is exactly what many people think, and that is why you need to familiarize yourself with it in more detail using this article.
Progress in Electricity Generation
To fully understand how important this industry is to the world, it is necessary to take a look at how the electric power industry has developed throughout its history. It is immediately worth noting that electricity production is indicated in billions of kilowatts per hour. In 1890, when the electric power industry was just beginning to develop, only nine billion kWh were produced. A big leap occurred by 1950, when more than a hundred times more electricity was produced. From that moment on, development took giant strides - every decade several thousand billion kW/h were added at once. As a result, by 2013, world powers produced a total of 23,127 billion kWh - an incredible figure that continues to grow every year. Today, China and the United States of America provide the most electricity - these are the two countries that have the most developed electricity sectors. China accounts for 23 percent of the world's electricity, while the United States accounts for 18 percent. They are followed by Japan, Russia and India - each of these countries has at least four times less share in global electricity production. Well, now you also know the general geography of the electric power industry - it’s time to move on to specific types of this industry.
Thermal power engineering
You already know that the electric power industry is a branch of the energy sector, and the energy industry itself, in turn, is a branch of industry as a whole. However, the ramifications do not end there - there are several types of electric power, some of them are very common and are used everywhere, others are not so popular. There are also alternative areas of the electric power industry, where non-traditional methods are used to achieve large-scale electricity production without harming the environment, as well as neutralizing all the negative features of traditional methods. But first things first.
First of all, it is necessary to talk about thermal power engineering, since it is the most widespread and well-known all over the world. How is electricity generated in this way? You can easily guess that in this case, thermal energy is converted into electrical energy, and thermal energy is obtained by combustion various types fuel. Combined heat and power plants can be found in almost every country - this is the simplest and most convenient process for obtaining large volumes of energy at low costs. However, this process is one of the most harmful to the environment. Firstly, natural fuel is used to generate electricity, which is guaranteed to run out someday. Secondly, combustion products are released into the atmosphere, poisoning it. That's why they exist alternative methods receiving electricity. However, these are not all traditional types of electric power - there are others, and we will further concentrate on them.
Nuclear power
As in the previous case, when considering nuclear power, a lot can be gleaned from the name alone. Electricity generation in this case is carried out in nuclear reactors, where atoms are split and their nuclei fission - as a result of these actions, a large release of energy occurs, which is then transformed into electricity. It’s unlikely that anyone else knows that this is the most unsafe electric power industry. Not every country's industry has its share in the global production of nuclear electricity. Any leak from such a reactor can lead to catastrophic consequences - just remember Chernobyl, as well as the incidents in Japan. However, recently more and more attention has been paid to safety, which is why nuclear power plants are being built further.
Hydropower
Another popular way to produce electricity is to obtain it from water. This process takes place at hydroelectric power stations; it does not require either dangerous nuclear fission processes or environmentally harmful combustion of fuel, but it also has its disadvantages. Firstly, this is a violation of the natural flow of rivers - dams are built on them, due to which the necessary flow of water is created into the turbines, which is how energy is obtained. Often, due to the construction of dams, rivers, lakes and other natural reservoirs are drained and destroyed, so it cannot be said that this is an ideal option for this energy sector. Accordingly, many electric power enterprises are turning not to traditional, but to alternative types of electricity generation.
Alternative power engineering
Alternative electrical energy is a collection of types of electrical energy that differ from traditional ones mainly in that they do not require one or another type of harm to the environment, and also do not expose anyone to danger. We are talking about hydrogen, tidal, wave and many other varieties. The most common of them are wind and solar energy. It is on them that the emphasis is placed - many believe that the future of this industry lies with them. What is the essence of these types?
Wind energy is the production of electricity from wind. Windmills are built in the fields, which work very efficiently and provide energy not much worse than the previously described methods, but at the same time, windmills only need wind to operate. Naturally, the disadvantage this method is that the wind is natural element, which cannot be controlled, but scientists are working to improve functionality windmills modernity. As for solar energy, here electricity is obtained from sun rays. As in the case of the previous type, it is also necessary to work on increasing the storage capacity, since the sun does not always shine - and even if the weather is cloudless, in any case, at a certain moment night comes when the solar panels are not able to produce electricity.
Electricity transmission
Well, now you know all the main types of electricity generation, however, as you can already understand from the definition of the term electric power industry, everything is not limited to receiving it. Energy needs to be transmitted and distributed. So, it is transmitted through power lines. These are metal conductors that create one large electrical network throughout the world. Previously, overhead lines were most often used - these are the ones you can see along the roads, thrown from one pillar to another. However, recently they have become increasingly popular cable lines which are laid underground.
History of the development of the Russian electric power industry
Russia's electric power industry began to develop at the same time as the world's - in 1891, when for the first time the transmission of electrical power over almost two hundred kilometers was successfully carried out. In the realities of pre-revolutionary Russia, the electric power industry was incredibly underdeveloped - the annual electricity production for such a huge country was only 1.9 billion kW/h. When the revolution took place, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin proposed the implementation of which began immediately. Already by 1931, the planned plan was fulfilled, but the speed of development turned out to be so impressive that by 1935 the plan was exceeded three times. Thanks to this reform, by 1940 the annual electricity generation in Russia amounted to 50 billion kWh, which is twenty-five times more than before the revolution. Unfortunately, dramatic progress was interrupted by World War II, but after its conclusion, work recovered, and by 1950, the Soviet Union was generating 90 billion kWh, which accounted for about ten percent of total electricity generation worldwide. By the mid-sixties, the Soviet Union had reached second place in the world in electricity production and was second only to the United States. The situation remained at the same high level until the collapse of the USSR, when the electric power industry was far from the only industry that suffered greatly due to this event. In 2003, a new Federal Law on the electric power industry was signed, within the framework of which the rapid development of this industry in Russia should take place in the coming decades. And the country is definitely moving in that direction. However, it is one thing to sign a federal law on the electric power industry, and completely different to implement it. This is exactly what will be discussed further. You will learn about what problems exist in the Russian electric power industry today, as well as what ways will be chosen to solve them.
Excess electricity generating capacity
Russia's electric power industry is already in much better shape than it was ten years ago, so we can safely say that progress is being made. However, at a recent energy forum, the main problems of this industry in the country were identified. And the first of them is an excess of electricity generating capacity, which was caused by the massive construction of low-power power plants in the USSR instead of the construction of a small number of high-power power plants. All these stations still need to be serviced, so there are two ways out of the situation. The first is the decommissioning of facilities. This option would be ideal if it were not for the enormous costs of such a project. Therefore, Russia will most likely move towards the second option, namely increasing consumption.
Import substitution
After the introduction of Western stations, Russian industry very acutely felt its dependence on foreign supplies - this also greatly affected the electric power industry, where almost none of the modern spheres activities, the entire production process of certain generators did not take place exclusively on the territory of the Russian Federation. Accordingly, the government plans to increase production capacity in the necessary areas, control their localization, and also try to get rid of dependence on imports as much as possible.
Fresh air
The problem is that modern Russian company, working in the electricity sector, pollute the air a lot. However, the Ministry of Ecology of the Russian Federation has tightened the legislation and began to collect fines for violation of established standards more often. Unfortunately, companies suffering from this do not plan to try to optimize their production - they are throwing all their efforts into overwhelming the “green” ones with numbers and demanding a relaxation of legislation.
Billions of debt
Today, the total debt of electricity users throughout Russia is about 460 billion Russian rubles. Naturally, if the country had at its disposal all the money that was owed to it, it could develop the electric power industry much faster. Therefore, the government plans to tighten penalties for late payment of electricity bills, and will also encourage those who do not want to pay bills in the future to install their own solar panels and supply their own energy.
Regulated market
The most the main problem domestic electric power industry means complete regulation of the market. In European countries, regulation of the energy market is almost completely absent; there is real competition there, so the industry is developing at a tremendous pace. All these rules and regulations greatly hinder development, and as a result, the Russian Federation has already begun purchasing electricity from Finland, where the market is practically unregulated. The only solution to this problem is a transition to a free market model and a complete abandonment of regulation.
