Today hydraulic power engineering plays a critical role not only as a low-carbon energy source, but also as a basis of sustainability and manageability of energy systems. This was stated by Sergey Machekhin, Deputy General Director of PJSC RusHydro for project engineering, sustainable development and international cooperation, at the international conference Regional to Global now taking place in Quito.
“RusHydro is the major generating company in Russia for all types of energy. We are developing hydraulic, thermal, geo-thermal, wind and solar generation, and we also participate in the projects of building and supporting the operations of nuclear power plants. On top of that, we are engaged in infrastructure design. Our holding includes all the elements of energy industry: constructions and servicing companies, as well as cutting-edge engineering and research institutes. At the same time, we are rather a young company, only 20 years old, though our subsidiaries are over 90 years old. During this period, we implemented more than 400 projects all over the world”, Machekhin remarked.
“Today the world faces great challenges in energy industry. It will be a big mistake if we view hydraulic power engineering only as energy generation. First of all, we are managing huge water resources. And of course, for countries of Latin America, South Asia, for Arabic nations water today all too often is more expensive than energy. I think, people could live without electricity for two or three days – it is quite possible if you do not make phone calls and do not check your e-mails. But unfortunately, they cannot survive without water. What will you do, if tomorrow morning and then the day after tomorrow you do not have tap water? Just imagine this. When you are taking a shower, brushing your teeth, please, do not forget: water is a renewable resource, we can replenish its stock fund, but we always need to take care about water as a source of life”, he emphasized.
Highlighting the critical role of hydraulic power, Machekhin pointed out that over the recent decade the share of the overall installed capacity of hydraulic power plants in the global energy mix decreased down to 17%, despite the general growth of the generation and of demand.
“This shows that the system today lacks balance. This is the key problem. And that is exactly why we need to view all types of the generation in totality – like we do in Russia”, Machekhin emphasized.
He also called the concept of low-carbon energy a sort of “trap” emphasizing that following this agenda without account of the specifics of national and cross-border energy systems may result in big problems.
“Hydraulic power is not only a source of green energy. Operating hydraulic power facilities per se provides for regulating the energy systems. For example, nuclear power plants need at least 25% of regulation power in the energy system. Today it may be assured only by hydraulic power plants and pumped storage units. In this sense, all electricity generating companies are inter-connected. It is extremely important to understand how to build a sustainable system of electricity supply”, the Deputy CEO explained.
