Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2010 number 5

The paper shows what objectives the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences pursued by establishment of the Siberian Energy Institute in Irkutsk, and how the Institute's research tasks transformed over the past 50 years.

The paper overviews the first steps of Melentyev Energy Systems Institute SB RAS and its progress in regional energy studies; what researches were made under a new economic situation; and what studies concerning the energy sector development in the eastern regions of Russia were conducted.

The paper considers the issues of prospective socio-economic development in the eastern part of Russia in the context of building energy complexes and a regional resource base in East Siberia and the Far East. We present our assessment of contribution such complexes made to a rapid economic growth in the eastern regions.

We analyze a current situation on energy markets in the countries of Northeast Asia, and we present our economic forecast of these markets as well as possible market capacity for Russian fuel and energy resources for the period till 2030.

We present our forecast of supply and demand for fuel and energy in Russia for the first half the XXI century. We show what role the eastern regions would play in Russian production and consumption of fuel and energy resources, and what dynamics and structure of energy resources export to the European part of Russia and abroad could be observed.

The authors present their forecast of changing market prices for energy carriers, which could be observed in the regions of Siberia and the Far East, assuming the economic situation on the world's oil markets and the prices covering self-repayment of gas, coal and black oil production.

The paper considers methodological issues of how perspective fuel and energy balances can be drawn up and applied to the eastern regions of Russia. The structural transformations which could take place due to the energy industries progress in these regions are analyzed.

The paper shows the structural transformations which could take place in power production in East Siberia and the Far East over the period until 2030; an extent of generating capacities; and demand for fuel and investments required for further development of power plants and networks. Our calculations were made within the framework of two development scenarios for this macro-region.

We analyze a state of affairs in heat supply available to customers in regions of the Siberian and Far East Federal Districts, and we assess the prospects of its improvement. We also present our forecast of heat energy production and consumption balances. We also offer the innovations which would allow overcoming negative trends on the way of modernization.

The paper describes an economic situation in coal industry of the East of Russia, i.e. the coal production, reserves, supply and consumption as well as the problems, priorities and development goals of this sector. Having formulated a prospective demand for coal, we show how the coal industry could develop in this region over the period till 2030.

We consider the development prospects and key problems of oil and gas industries in the East of Russia as well as backgrounds for building gas processing and gas chemistry industries.

We analyze the specifics and problems of decentralized power supply in the eastern regions of Russia, as well as development preconditions and problems of a small energy sector. We also discuss under what conditions a decentralized power supply zone could be enlarged to remain effective; under what conditions the local fuel consumption becomes more effective; and whether more extensive use of low-power nuclear stations would benefit. We offer our recommendations on promoting a small energy sector.

We analyze potentials of renewable resources available in the eastern regions of Russia, and we assess how effective to decentralized consumers such resources could be.  Zones of reasonable location of renewable resources and possible volumes of their use in the east of Russia are shown.

We present our zoning of the Baikal natural area as environmental areas, the way how such areas could be provided with energy, and how the central area and its parts could be supplied with power through combining external and local energy resources.

We assess budgetary efficiency of a fuel and energy complex in the East of Russia. And we compare two sources of investments required for development of this complex - from budgets of all levels and taxes paid by the complex to relative budgets.

We consider key provisions of the strategic initiatives on higher efficiency of power produced in the eastern regions of Russia. We assess sectoral potentials and offer the priority ways of energy saving. We also show that renewable energy sources could make the fuel consumption lower in the eastern region of Russia. Organizational and institutional background as well as a technology policy concerning energy saving are considered.

The paper identifies and assesses environmental impacts of the fuel and energy complex operating in the East of Russia. Key priorities of the environmental policy and its appropriate mechanisms required for developing the energy sector in this region are presented.

We present an approach to assess energy security in the units of the Russian Federation which combines the instruments of monitoring and indicative analysis and which was developed by Melentyev Energy Systems Institute SB RAS. The assessment was made through comparing the actual values of key indicators with those set by experts and being threshold ones. An integrated quantitative assessment of the macro-regional energy security as well problems of different regions are also presented. This can allow finding the ways of ameliorating the situation.

We analyze how energy strategies and programs for the eastern regions of Russia are developed and implemented at present, and we consider the mechanisms allowing their better implementation.