OREANDA-NEWS. December 12, 2012. According to Oleg Budargin, Chairman of the Management Board of the Federal Grid Company (Federal Grid), the average cost of technological connection to Federal Grid Company’s grids decreased almost five-fold for recent three years. This statement has been made by Mr. Budargin in his speech at the session “Russia’s Strategic Opportunities: Integration and Horizons” within the framework of the Russia Calling 4th International Forum organized by VTB Capital.

Mr. Budargin’s speech was related to development of electric energy grid infrastructure with regard to its Russian and international aspects.

According to Mr. Budargin, under conditions of economic globalization and growth in electric energy consumption the creation of an integrated interstate energy system has become more topical. Russia can and has to be a proactive participant in this process. However, for this, it needs to form an integrated infrastructure. Federal Grid is an active participant in this process.

Furthermore, Mr. Budargin pointed out that it is not enough to build new facilities and grids to achieve the objectives of integration. There is a need in development of the Smart Grid concept and in implementation of the Smart Grid technology.

Among priority directions that Mr. Budargin highlighted was formation of pilot territorial clusters based on newest research results, as well as cooperation in the field of localizing the production of energy-saving and high-tech equipment across Russia.

The Chairman of the Management Board of Federal Grid pointed out that in the future, given the geography and scale of the energy sector, Russia has everything necessary to create a full scale energy hub – an integrated energy transportation center, including all necessary infrastructure services.

Moreover, Mr. Budargin paid special attention to explaining advantages of RAB regulation. He emphasized that it made a positive impact on the grid infrastructure development and improved accessibility of the Company’s grids for consumers.

Mr. Budargin said: “For the three years we use RAB regulations the rules were changed three times. Despite that, our grids were ungraded for 2%. The length of our transmission lines increases by 3% every year, and the annual growth our transformer capacity stands at 6%. Yes, currently Federal Grid has 213 closed main sub-stations, but for the recent three years we almost halved this number. The number of emergency cutoffs in autumn and winter decreased two-fold. We cut costs. For three years a number of technological connections agreements concluded by our Company doubled. This demonstrates the higher level of accessibility of grid infrastructure in comparison with the situation we had three years ago. An average cost of technological connection to our grids decreased five-fold, from RUR78 million to RUR12-17 million. And this is not the minimal limit.”