Problems of standardizing and technical regulation in the electric power industry

Аннотация

A mandatory condition to ensure normal operation of a power system and efficiency in the sector is standardization and legal regulation of technological activities of electric power engineering entities and consumers. Compared to the times of USSR, the present-time technical guidance documents are not mandatory to follow in most cases, being of an advisory nature due to the lack of new ones. During the last five years, the industry has been showing a deterioration of the situation in terms of ensuring reliability and engineering controllability as a result of the dominant impact of short-term market stimuli and the differences in basic technological policies. In absence of clear requirements regarding the engineering aspects of such activities, production operation does not contribute to the preserving of technical integrity of the Russian power system, which leads to the loss of performance capability and controllability and causes disturbances in the power supply to consumers. The result of this problem is a high rate of accident incidence. The dynamics of accidents by the type of equipment is given, indicating a persisting trend of growth in the number of accidents, which are of a systematic nature. Several problematic aspects of engineering activities of electric power engineering entities, requiring standardization and legal regulation are pointed out:

• in the domestic power system, a large number of power electrotechnical and generating equipment operate along with systems of regulation, which do not comply with the principles and technical rules representing a framework where the Energy System of Russia is built and functioning

• one of the reasons of accidents is the absence of mandatory requirements for putting in operation and (or) managing the operation of electric power facilities, their equipment, and devices

• the absence of standardization and regulation of relations between the owners of technologically connected power facilities when creating (modernizing) the relay protection, emergency control, and regime-based automated systems or other systems of engineering control in an energy system

• the lack of mechanisms to implement an orchestrated policy in the sector due to the absence of common rules and standards.

Reference is made to the fact that if common mandatory requirements to production, design, operation of electric power facilities and their equipment and devices are standardized and regulated shortly, efficient operation of energy systems within a single technological process will become possible, and the level of reliability of the Energy System of Russia will grow.