Mikhail Mishustin: “We will have to chart detailed approaches to make our power grid more resilient and to meet long-term electricity demand from organisations and households for many years. Today, the price of one kilowatt/hour in Russia is among the lowest in the world. And, of course, it is our task to preserve this important advantage for individuals and businesses.”
Mikhail Mishustin chairs strategic session on the development of the power-generating sector
Mikhail Mishustin chairs strategic session on the development of the power-generating sector
Mikhail Mishustin chairs strategic session on the development of the power-generating sector
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:Good afternoon, colleagues.We continue to hold strategic sessions on the development of our country’s economy. Earlier, we discussed ways of boosting the energy and resource efficiency of various sectors. Last week we discussed oil and coal sectors. Today, we will discuss the Russian power-generating and transmission sector (that provides electricity for specific production facilities, homes and flats) in great detail. The President has emphasised the fact that measures to saturate the domestic market and to power our regions, cities and enterprises with affordable and inexpensive electricity was a high-priority aspect of the national fuel and energy sector’s development. Much has already been accomplished in this field. In late December 2024, we approved a general plan for siting power industry facilities over the next few years. Under this scheme, the volume of newly-installed power-generating equipment will exceed redundant power plants by 100 percent, and the overall capacity of the country’s power grid will soar by 15 percent.
The Energy Strategy
will form the mainstay of this sphere’s development. It will integrate the sector’s transformation with current economic processes, considering the influence of various spheres. Of course, our considerable technological
independence from foreign suppliers makes it much easier to accomplish this
objective. This independence is approaching 100 percent in the power-generating
segment.
The current year saw another landmark event. Power generation in a number of Far Eastern and Northern regions joined the entire country since January 1. Now the reliability of power supply in those regions has grown, which is important for the enterprises and primarily for the people.
At the same time power engineering faces many challenges. Some of them are of systemic nature caused by obsolete equipment and wear and tear of transmission networks. And cross-subsidisation. When the price of a kilowatt hour for other consumers is subsidised at the expense of higher tariffs for the industry it leads to overstatement of the goods cost.
Other challenges stem from the positive dynamics in the economy in general. Demand for electricity in Russia has been growing at a faster-than-expected pace over the past five years, especially in the eastern and southern regions.
The structure of electricity consumption is also changing significantly. On the one hand, new technologies that reduce energy consumption per unit of output and in general are being actively introduced. On the other hand, energy-intensive sectors such as electric transport, data processing centres, and the use of artificial intelligence are expanding. Electrification of industrial and household devices is going on.
Colleagues!
Today we have to chart detailed approaches to make our power grid more resilient and to meet long-term electricity demand from organisations and households for many years. Today, the price of one kilowatt/hour in Russia is among the lowest in the world. And, of course, it is our task to preserve this important advantage for individuals and businesses.
