Russia looks to Australia for electricity market best practice

A 12-strong delegation from Russia’s National Energy Market Council has met with TransGrid officials, exchanging ideas about how to best meet the challenges facing electricity industries currently and into the future.

During a two-hour meeting, the delegates discussed everything from pricing to regulation models, as well as demand forecasting and what the electricity industry might look like in years to come.

Russia’s Federal Tariff Service director Maxim Mulyukin said the two countries face similar network and distributor challenges in regards to cost, demand and regulation.

Russian officials stated their electricity market was based on the Australian model, when it was brought in just more than 10 years ago.

They returned to study how the National Electricity Market is now operated and regulated.

The delegation was briefed by TransGrid’s regulation and business improvement manager Anthony Englund, and operations technical support manager Jahan Peiris.

“It was certainly an enlightening meeting – and our visitors were very interested about a range of topics including the design of our regulatory system, the governance arrangements, where competition starts in the industry and the important role of consumers,” Mr Englund said.

Among the Russian energy industry stakeholder group were representatives of the market regulator (NP Market Council), the power exchange (JSC TSA), the system operator and industry regulator (Federal Tariff Service).

“They were also quite keen to know more the penetration of smart grids and the establishing and enforcing of technical standards,” Mr Peiris said.

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