Responding to Needs of the Present, With a View to the Future

The MAIN JOURNAL for POWER GRID SPECIALISTS in RUSSIA

2014

DIGEST, February, 2014

20

Smart Grid

— Sergey Alexeyevich, please tell us fi rst  about 

your company. When was it established and what does 
it engage in?

— “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” was established 

on December 30, 2003, and in 2004 it obtained the status 
of a wholesale market entity to supply electric power to 
consumers. As a result of power industry reformation 
consumers got the right to choose any electric power 
supplier that will offer them the most favourable terms in 
accordance with the rules of electric power wholesale and 
retail markets. One of these independent suppliers is JSC 
“Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya”.

We supply, at contract prices, electric power to our 

consumers that meet certain requirements (the energy 
sales organization has, according to all the contracts 
signed with consumers (buyers) on the retail market, the 
total connected capacity of power receiving equipment 
not less than 20 MVA on condition that in each cluster 
of supply points it equals or exceeds 750 kVA and 
commercial metering systems are implemented). We also 
provide services on installation of automated information 
and measuring systems for commercial power metering 
(AIMS CPM) at customers’ facilities.

— JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” is now 

one of the largest sales companies in Belgorod Region. 
Besides services traditionally provided by organizations 
of the sector, the company actively engages in such 
fi elds as energy audit, energy consulting and installing 
electric power metering systems. Please tell us how 

successful these directions of the company’s activities 
are at present? Who are your main customers?

— Following adoption of Federal Law 261 of November 

23, 2009 “On energy saving and increasing energy-
ef

fi

 ciency” the direction of energy audit has become 

top-priority not only in our company but in the power 
industry, as a whole. We have conducted inspections of the 
largest industrial and agricultural enterprises in Belgorod, 
Kursk and Volgograd Regions. We analyze almost all 
parts of enterprises’ production processes, which enables 
us to de

fi

 ne and develop measures for reducing energy 

consumption rates of production processes as well as for 
reducing losses and expenses.

Apart from energy audit, our company renders services 

in the 

fi

 eld of installing and commissioning AIMS CPM. 

In 2013 our company installed about 200 metering devices 

Responding to Needs of the 

Present, With a View to the Future

At present, a multitude of energy sales organizations of various sizes 
operate in the territory of Russia. The largest of them were traditionally 
formed on the basis of former AO-Energos in the reformation process 
of RAO UES of Russia. They enjoy certain advantages, but most still 
remain to be relatively young establishments having to fight for the 
consumer and for their right of existence. Today we are talking to 
Sergey SHABAIDAKOV, General Director of JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya 
Kompaniya”, the organization which renders packaged high-quality 
services to its customers and which has rightly won their confidence.

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21

as components of commercial power metering systems 
implemented at the largest industrial, agricultural and 
utility enterprises in Belgorod Region.  

— Which of the projects in this fi eld do you 

consider to be the most successful? What are their 
main performance indicators?

— We have conducted many energy inspections of 

different enterprises and every single of them can be 
called successful. Since we use an individual approach to 
every energy inspection, take into account all peculiarities 
of production processes and, most importantly, offer 
certain programs of energy saving which include: saving 
energy resources by optimizing production processes, 
reducing losses by improving supply schemes (electric 
power, gas and heat supply) and saving energy resources 
by introducing new technologies.

Implementing electric power metering systems allows 

our customers to save about 15—20% of electric power 
costs thanks to more bene

fi

 cial rates, which they can 

choose only after installing respective metering devices. 
Besides, now they can monitor real-time hourly electric 
power consumption and correspondingly adjust operation 
modes of their production works, for example, by carrying 
out the most energy-consuming production processes 
when electric power is the cheapest (at night). 

— Issues of increasing energy-effi ciency in existing 

power supply schemes are closely related to issues of 
reducing losses in power grids, increasing quality of 
electric power supplied to the consumer, etc. These 
problems can be solved only on condition of close 
cooperation with power grid companies. What does 
JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” do in this 
direction? Are there any problems with interaction and 
mutual understanding? Do you have any suggestions 
on how the situation can be improved?

— The matter is that power grid companies themselves 

are interested in implementation of automated systems 
of commercial metering, in order to be able to more 
accurately meter power and capacity transmitted through 
their grids. Therefore, even if any problems in interaction 
with power grid companies in terms of metering arise, 
they are solved routinely. One should also pay attention 
to the fact that metering devices installed by specialists of 
JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” enable monitoring 
of electric power quality, due to which our customers and 
representatives of power grid companies can monitor 
the condition of equipment of power grids and eliminate 
all disturbances in operation of grids within the shortest 
possible time. Deterioration of electric power quality 
can lead to signi

fi

 cant changes of operation modes of 

power receivers and, consequently, to decreasing capacity 
of operating mechanisms, deterioration of quality of 
products, shortening of service life of electric equipment 
and rising probability of accidents. Therefore, electric 
power quality monitoring is one of the priority functions 
of electric power metering systems we create. 

— There are several contradictory points of view 

on interoperation of power grid companies and 
power sales companies. There are even suggestions 
on introducing amendments to legislation in order to 
provide for combining power grid and sales activities 
within one company. What is your opinion on the 
issue? Which operation scheme is the most effective 
and benefi cial for grids, sales and consumers?

— As regards suggestions on combining power grid 

and sales activities within one company, such ideas may 
have some ground, however, they contradict the changes 
in the Russian power industry which took place within the 
framework of its reformation. Combining sales and power 
grid activities is getting radically back to what we had 
10—15 years ago and at present it is hardly rational as it 
impedes the ful

fi

 llment of the key task of reformation, i.e. 

competition between energy sales companies, which we 
now have. 

On the other hand, impact of grids on different aspects 

of sales business remains to be substantial and often is of 
a clearly discriminatory character in relation to sales and 
end consumers of electric power. Our company, being a 
wholesale market entity and an electric power supplier for 
a number of large consumers, interacts with grid companies 
not only as a consumer of their services on electric power 
transmission, but on a range of related issues as well, for 
example, organizing commercial metering for electric 
power consumers, coordination of clusters of electric 
power supply points on the wholesale market, electric 

DIGEST, February, 2014

22

Smart Grid

power quality, etc. The problems we face most often 
concern quality of supplied power, uninterrupted power 
supply, organization of metering and different compliance 
procedures.

Thus, the way I see it, the solution to the problems 

lies not in changing the existing legislation radically 
once again and combining all kinds of activities in power 
industry, but in introducing small changes in activities of 
grid companies, improving quality and transparency of 
services provided by power grid organizations.

— Let’s go back to your current activities. One of 

the services you provide is creating automated systems 
of electric power metering. Such services are rendered 
by many organizations. What is the advantage of your 
systems? 

— Indeed, at present we design and install automated 

information and measuring systems of commercial power 
metering (AIMS CPM) which meet the requirements 
of the electric power and capacity wholesale market 
(EPCWM). The service includes the whole range of 
works starting from purchasing equipment and ending 
with obtaining the Certi

fi

 cate of Compliance of AIMS 

CPM with Technical Requirements of EPCWM, i.e. we 
implement turnkey projects. Highly quali

fi

 ed  personnel 

of JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” have great 
experience in designing, commissioning and maintaining 
AIMS CPM. The main advantage of our metering 
systems is their competitive prices. All equipment and 
components used in AIMS CPM are supplied directly 
from manufacturing plants, which makes the 

fi

 nal cost of 

the system cheaper, provides for its highest performance 
in terms of reliability, service life, etc. The apparent 
bene

fi

 t of our systems is that all our consumers can 

monitor consumption of their enterprises from any place 
of the world. It requires only Internet access, which is not 
a problem nowadays. In many cases we 

fi

 nance creating 

automated systems of commercial power metering to the 
rate of 100%. It is bene

fi

 cial both for us as power suppliers 

and our consumers. 

— Do these metering systems have a possibility of 

integration with other automated technological systems 
(automated process control systems, supervisory 
control and process control systems, communication 
systems, etc.)? With which systems is it possible and to 
what degree?

— AIMS CPM systems of JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya 

Kompaniya” operate with Alfa CENTER software 
package, which is based on the principles of the client-
server architecture and Oracle database management 
system (Oracle DMS). Therefore all automated 
technological systems based on Oracle DMS can be 
integrated with our AIMS CPM. AIMS can take readings 
of devices for metering other energy resources (steam, gas, 
water, heat) and even meters engaged in the technological 
process. These functions can be used both directly for 
comprehensive metering of resources and as an “auxiliary 
tool” for metering namely electric power. In addition, 
integration of AIMS CPM with automated process control 
systems of enterprises makes it possible to perform: 
peak-shaving of electric power consumption, indirect 

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diagnostics of equipment based on power consumption 
parameters; calculation and maintaining energy-ef

fi

 cient 

operation modes of mechanisms.

— Does the system’s upper level have any 

possibilities for analysis and forecasting of events and 
indicators? Is there any possibility of integration with 
systems of fi nancial and economic planning of the 
enterprise?

— Our AIMS CPM systems can integrate with software 

products developed on the platform “1

С

: Enterprise”. 

They enable consolidating information obtained as a result 
of execution of metering and billing functions, keeping 
it in retrospective, generating various kinds of reports, 
developing trade strategies and analyzing operation 
performance on EPCWM and retail electric power market.

Automation makes it possible to reduce the time 

required for carrying out the activities within the 
framework of ful

fi

 llment  of 

fi

 nancial  obligations/

requirements of signed contracts, to reduce the number of 
routine operations executed by personnel, to reduce the 
risk of errors in primary and reporting documents and, 
consequently, to improve the quality of interaction with 
counteragents.

AIMS CPM data enable creating the “Personal 

Account”, which is an access point to limited personi

fi

 ed 

information and is intended for providing services on 
remote working with documents, consumption data, 
obtaining billing data as well as paying for power 
supply services to customers of energy sales companies, 
enabling the customer to work with documents on the 
remote basis (

fi

 ling requests for introducing amendments 

to agreements), displaying data of actual consumption, 
contracts and additional agreements to contracts, 
metering points and consumers’ metering devices, prices 
of guaranteed suppliers and costs of electric power and 
capacity on EPCWM.

— How do you carry out operation, ongoing and 

warranty maintenance of metering systems? What 
additional services associated with metering systems 
does JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” render to 
its customers?

— In JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya Kompaniya” it is the 

AIMS CPM department that deals with operation and 
maintenance of metering systems. Ongoing maintenance 
involves replacement and restoration of the installed 
equipment, updating and maintenance of AIMS CPM 
software. We undertake to provide warranty maintenance 
within 12 months following the commissioning of the 
system. Should the guarantee period expire we offer 
post-guarantee maintenance of systems. In addition, 
we render consulting services during modernization of 
AIMS CPM.

— Which direction in the power industry, in your 

opinion, will be leading in future?

— I believe that the future of power industry lies with 

virtual power stations.

This system provides for digital monitoring of 

renewable energy sources and coordinates their operation 
with consumers’ needs. Speaking 

fi

 guratively, by means 

of the system small “pieces” of power are packed into a 
large packet in which they are delivered to the consumer 
at the proper time.

The idea lies in interconnecting all power producers 

by means of an information system, which will enable 
coordinating and adjusting functioning of the whole 
energy system.

Now we are forming a working group which will 

develop a project on creating a virtual power station. 
We will make all efforts to use best practices of our 
foreign colleagues and introduce our own ideas in this 
project.

37, Knyazya Trubetskogo str., Belgorod

Tel. +7 (4722) 33-47-18 

Fax +7 (4722) 33-47-28

www.pskenergo.ru, psk2009@mail.ru

JSC “Pervaya Sbytovaya 

Kompaniya”