Young energy companies of the CIS will offer digital solutions for lean production

In April 2024, the National qualifying stages of the League of Young CIS Specialists of the International Engineering Championship "CASE—IN" will be held in the CIS member states for the second time. The final will be held in Moscow in May.

The new direction of the championship, the League of Young CIS Specialists, was launched in 2023 on the initiative of the Reliable Shift Educational Project Foundation and the Executive Committee of the CIS Electric Power Council, with the support of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) and PJSC RusHydro.

In 2023, National selection stages dedicated to the theme "Low—carbon development based on environmentally neutral technologies" were held in eight CIS member states: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan. In total, the project involved 156 young professionals in 42 teams. In the final, all participants showed a deep understanding of the competition topic, good knowledge of the national regulatory framework and tasks in the field of decarbonization, high motivation to win and teamwork skills.

The active response of specialists confirms the relevance of the topic chosen for the competition: one of the practical tasks facing electric power industry specialists around the world is the low—carbon development of the industry, while maintaining the reliability, physical and affordability of energy supply. When solving this problem, regulators and backbone companies proceed from national goals and development scenarios, the available resource base, possible socio-economic constraints, the specifics of the energy system, as well as the social demand for improving the environmental friendliness of the industry.

The task of the National Selection Stages was to develop an optimal scenario for the low—carbon development of the electric power industry in a particular CIS member state based on environmentally neutral technologies. As part of the final, participants had to solve a task aimed at analyzing existing environmentally neutral technologies that can have an impact on the low-carbon development of the UES/OES energy complex as a whole without reducing the reliability of parallel operation, as well as propose a preferred energy balance structure, taking into account the available resource base, infrastructure development based on projected energy consumption. The analysis was based on the methodology and criteria developed by the team for making the optimal decision, as well as a subsequent assessment of potential effects and a feasibility study. As a result, three priority technologies were selected, which, in the opinion of the participants, can ensure the most effective implementation of low-carbon development of the electric power industry in the CIS area, taking into account the preferred structure of the energy balance for the period up to 2030.

According to the results of the National Qualifying stages in 2023, the teams reached the final:

•  from the Republic of Azerbaijan: PHOTON and Azerimpulse teams (Azerishig JSC);
•  from the Republic of Armenia: "Armtechteam" and "Creative engineers" teams (National Polytechnic University of Armenia);
•  from the Republic of Belarus: the teams of Beltei... & Co (RUE BELTEI) and Gomelenergo (RUE Gomelenergo);
•  from the Republic of Kazakhstan: the QazGrid Innovators team (KEGOC JSC);
•  from the Kyrgyz Republic: the teams "NESK" and "996" (JSC "National Electric Grid of Kyrgyzstan");
•  from the Russian Federation: the teams Novy Port Tecechnologies (Gazpromneft-Yamal LLC) and SO (SO UES JSC);
•  from the Republic of Tajikistan: teams from the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan and JSC Barki Tojik;
•  from the Republic of Uzbekistan: NEGU No. 1 and Energy Group teams (National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan JSC).

In 2024, young specialists need to offer solutions on the topic "Digital transformation of the CIS fuel and energy complex in the context of the Lean Manufacturing concept: practical solutions."

Young specialists (from 25 to 35 years old) are invited to participate in the competition — employees of relevant ministries, strategic companies and specialized educational institutions. The task of the case will be structured in such a way that representatives of organizations in various sectors of the fuel and energy sector will be able to take an active part.

The theme of the competition reflects the most relevant trends in the development of the industry — the need to develop lean manufacturing approaches in Fuel and energy complex in conditions of limited resources and high requirements for the reliability of energy supply.

The solutions will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Technology: technical applicability in the context of the case and the task, assessment of technological efficiency and implementation results, validity of the proposed technical solutions.

2. Economics: economic efficiency and payback of project decisions within five years, risk assessment and economic justification of priority project decisions.

3. Innovativeness: the originality and novelty of a technological, economic, organizational and/or other solution or their combination, high relevance and its increased effectiveness.

4. The use of Lean Manufacturing technologies in the solution: the presence of a system of interrelated processes / operations that ensure the continuity and uniformity of production activities, as well as the elimination of losses.

 5. Presentation and answers to experts' questions: the level of information structure, the use of additional sources of information, the quality of visualization of slides, text, graphic design, as well as detailed, logical and professional answers of participants to the questions posed by experts, fluency in terminology, confident use of theoretical and practical knowledge.

The holding of the CIS League of Young Specialists International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN" allows us to expand international cooperation in the promotion of engineering professions, engineering education and the development of new technologies, as well as strengthen horizontal ties and professional awareness of young specialists of the CIS member states.

Source: News in the Electric Power industry | No. 2 (130) 2024