Minister of Energy Alexander Novak has addressed the participants of the roundtable discussion, Choosing the Right Path For Energy Efficiency in Russia, at the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The event was aimed at discussing the methods and tools for increasing energy efficiency.
In 2010, the Energy Conservation and Raising Energy Efficiency Through 2020 state programme was adopted, and earlier in 2009, federal law No 261 was adopted, Mr Novak said. This served as the legal basis for stimulating energy efficiency.
Such internationally known and long standing terms as energy audit and energy services have appeared in Russia. An increase has been observed in metering devices, including in the budget sector.
Some 70 regulatory legal acts have been adopted and efforts have been made in regards to tax preferences in energy efficiency and the advanced modernisation of energy efficient equipment. In addition, Russia’s regions receive subsidies up to 5-6 billion roubles allocated as an economic incentive from the budget, which provides a multiplicative effect through attracting regional and business financing for implementing projects in energy efficiency.
According to the Minister, today Russia boasts the world’s largest volume of produced heat (2 billion gigacalories), but has a high level of wear and tear.
Mr Novak proposed two major ways to enhance the advanced increase of energy efficiency and to reduce energy output – namely, economic incentives and strict regulations.
Source: Ministry of Energy
