ROSSETI, the Central Interregional Distribution Grid Company (part of the ROSSETI Group) and the Yaroslavl Oblast authorities have signed an agreement to provide economic stimulus for energy saving measures and to improve energy efficiency during power transmission. The document was signed by the region's head Sergei Yastrebov and the Director of the Central Interregional Distribution Grid Company branch Konstantin Kotikov in the presence of ROSSETI's First Deputy General Director for Technical Policy Roman Berdnikov.

The agreement provides for the parties working jointly to regulate prices to reimburse the grid organisation for the operational costs related to decreasing losses within the network. According to the document, the Central Interregional Distribution Grid Company will install around 140,000 points of smart automated electricity metering in 10 YarEnergo power grid regions before 2018. These measures will decrease network losses by 17.4% by 2022 as compared with 2014 (by 8.11% from the base level down to 6.7%) which will result in yearly savings of up to 100 million kWh (or 200 million roubles). In turn, the regulating authority as represented by the Yaroslavl Oblast Department of Energy and Price Regulation will be responsible for ensuring that during its calculations for the price of energy, the savings will be accounted for and transferred to the network company, which will be able to spend these resources on installing smart metering systems.

The agreement was signed as part of a joint project by ROSSETI and the Russian Private Equity Fund to develop a smart electricity grid, aimed at conducting various operations to decrease electricity loss in a number of Russian regions, primarily through implementing smart metering systems - a technology that is widely used worldwide.

The Governor was very impressed with ROSSETI's measures to improve energy efficiency. "It is no accident that Yaroslavl has become the first in this project, the oblast has always been a centrepiece for innovations which are then expanded into other regions," the governor noted.

Lowering its loss levels will allow the Central Interregional Distribution Grid Company to decrease expenses related to purchasing electricity to compensate for these losses. Due to the fact that this indicator is now counted while calculating the prices for electricity, this will in turn allow the company to decrease energy costs for the consumers in the Yaroslavl Oblast.