On October 21, 2015 in Moscow, the International electric power industry forum "RUGRIDS-ELECTRO. Russian Grids. New Opportunities" continued its work. Dominant subject of the second day of the Forum was the plenary session dedicated to electric power industry megaprojects and Russia's role in the creation of energy corridor between Europe and Asia.

In the new geo-economical reality one can see active development and strengthening of partnerships of Russia and the Asia-Pacific region, to which the center of world trade and investment activities has shifted in recent decades. Russia stands as the main land (Trans-Siberian Railroad), sea (North sea route) and energy corridor between East Asia and Europe, which allows it to play a leading role in the implementation of transnational megaprojects. Striving for the development and increased competitiveness of the energy infrastructure in the Eastern Siberia and the Far East, our country can become a member of transnational technological alliances, the perspectives of which were discussed on the plenary session of the Forum "RUGRIDS-ELECTRO".

The following persons took part in the plenary session "Electric power industry megaprojects - do we need modernization technological alliances?":

- First Deputy Minister of power engineering of the Russian Federation Aleksey Teksler,

- First Deputy Director General of PJSC Rosseti Roman Berdnikov,

- State Duma deputy, member of the Committee on power engineering of the Russian Federation Sergey Yesyakov,

- Deputy Director General of the State Grid Corporation of China Luan Jiang,

- Director General of the Institute of Energy Strategy, Doctor of technical sciences, professor Vitaliy Bushuyev,

- Vice-president of the division "Power engineering" Schneider Electric in Russia and CIS Ivan Makarin,

- President of Panasonic Russia Junichi Suzuki,

- Co-founder of the technopark "Sofia Antipolis", founder of the Club de Nice, chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Technology Fund Dominique Fache.

The moderator of the session was senior partner of McKinsey&Co Stepan Solzhenitsyn.

Megaprojects in the electric power industry are the major export projects, power bridges for very long distances, the development of energy infrastructure for megaprojects in the Far East, for the new configurations of trade routes, new transport routes.

Experts forecast that by 2035 the share of the Asia Pacific Region in world energy consumption will grow by more than 8% as compared to 2010.

Participants of the plenary session noted that under the conditions of the widest diversification of political and economic connections between Russia and the Asia-Pacific region possible, there is no shortage of impulses to cooperation on the part of the government.

Aleksey Teksler also called "promising" the project of creation of "Asian Super Energy Ring", which involves interconnection of power systems of Russia, China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea. Potential volumes of tie-line power flows of the "Asian super energy ring" could amount to more than 15 GW. On the part of Japan, he possibility of creating the power bridge Russia (Sakhalin island) - Japan (Hokkaido island) is being studied Export potential of the project is up to 20 billion kWh per year. Construction of the power bridge "Russia - The Korean Peninsula" is discussed with Korean partners. The project involves the connection of electric power systems of Russia and the Republic of Korea through the electric power transmission line of high capacity across the DPRK.

"Ultimately, the development of energy projects in the Far East and Eastern Siberia and cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Region will contribute to the fulfilment of the industrial potential of Russia, the creation of new forms of interstate cooperation in the power engineering sector," First Deputy Minister noted.

Ambitious goals, for which megaprojects are created, involve state-of-the-art technologies. Experts of "RUGRIDS-ELECTRO" considered the issue of technological readiness of Russia and the Asia-Pacific countries to implement such complex and large-scale infrastructure projects. First Deputy Director General of PJSC Rosseti Roman Berdnikov is optimistic: "I do not see special technical problems in the transfer of energy for long distances: from two to four gigawatts can be transferred. Chinese partners are open to dialogue, the integration process is elaborating," he noted.

Deputy Director General of the State Grid Corporation of China Luan Jiang supported his Russian colleague: "Ten years ago, China's power transmission line was only a few hundred kilometres. As the industry was developing, 500 kV lines of direct current or alternate current ceased to satisfy the needs of the economy," he told. "Modern 1000 kV ultra-high voltage lines allow transmitting electricity for very long distances."

Another interesting and important aspect - the economy of megaprojects, their ability to attract interested investors and bring real benefits to all participants. In order to implement the goals unprecedented heretofore, the synergy of political, scientific and industrial capacities of the participating countries of the project is also required. Moderator of the discussion stressed on geopolitical aspect: "The network can be global, but not for the sake of giantism, but for a fundamental change of fuel balance in the world", senior partner of McKinsey Stepan Solzhenitsyn stressed. Are the largest infrastructure organizations, equipment manufacturers, research institutes ready today to form workable modernization technology alliances, without which the implementation of strategic electric power industry megaprojects is impossible? Participants of the plenary session also studied the results of cooperation between Russia, countries of Europe and North-East Asia in terms of the development of integrated technological solutions for energy megaprojects, and discussed the prospects for the continuation of such cooperation. "The integration and interconnectedness have already happened", vice-president of the division "Power engineering" of the company Schneider Electric in Russia and CIS Ivan Makarin stated.

In conclusion of the plenary discussion Aleksey Teksler awarded winners of the competition of professional skills "Best by occupation" of the energy sector within the framework of celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The business program of the second day of the Forum and Exhibition "RUGRIDS-ELECTRO" also included: All-Russian Regional Conference "Energy and resources efficiency"; Communication Forum "New opportunities in the development of strategic communications in the electric power industry in the context of today's market"; round table "Directions of import substitution in the electricity sector"; round table "National projects as a tool for the transition to innovative economy. Goals, objectives, mechanisms of implementation"; conference "Application of advanced developments of cabling and wiring products at the electricity sector facilities of Russia"; Open dialogue "Procurement activity of the electricity sector companies"; partnership event of the magazine "Energoekspert" "Power transformers: maintenance, diagnostics, repair and service life extension", as well as round table of participating teams of the International Youth Forum within the framework of SPIEF 2015, which brought together young energy workers from Russia, Germany, China and France.

On October 22 in Moscow "Expocentre", the work of the electric power industry's largest Forum and Exhibition "RUGRIDS-ELECTRO" will continue.

Organizers of «RUGRIDS-ELECTRO. Russian Grids. New Opportunities" thank the official partners and sponsors of the event: JSC "Energostroi - M.N.", JSC "Energomera", "SAP CIS" LLC, Group of companies "Tavrida Electric", JSC "Schneider Electric", "ABB" LLC, Hitachi Ltd., "TEKON" SC, "1C", "Skolkovo" Foundation, CJSC "FIG ENERGOKONTRAKT", HUAWEI Technologies Co., Ltd., SC Technoserv, RENAULT RUSSIA, "Nissan Manufacturing RUS" LLC, VOLKSWAGEN Group Rus, JSC Ryazan State instrument-making plant, JSC "SpetsAvtoEngineering", "Ensto Rus" LLC, JSC "SRC UES".