OAO MOSENERGO held an applied science conference on 3 October 2007 at the new Manege in Moscow entitled «MOSENERGO – Future Generation». Participants included OAO MOSENERGO General Director A.Ya.Kopsov, representatives from the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Moscow Government, Moscow Oblast Government, OAO Gazprom and RAO UES of Russia, the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the machine-building corporations Alstom and Siemens.

In 2007 OAO MOSENERGO, Russia’s largest generating company, turned 120. The company’s operations and history are inextricably linked to the country’s history and the development of the economy in Moscow region.

The history of Moscow’s energy system goes back to 1887, when the Joint-Stock Company of Electric Lighting of 1886, founded by the outstanding engineer and entrepreneur Karl Siemens, concluded the first contract to «arrange» for electric lighting in Moscow. The first power plants were built in the immediate proximity of electricity consumers: the Georgievskaya power plant generated the first electricity in 1888. The conference was held in its building. In 1897 the Moscow City state power plant [MGES] MGES-1 Raushskaya was commissioned and is still operational today, supplying electricity to the centre of Moscow. In 1907, MGES-2 Tramvainaya was commissioned to supply electricity for trams.

In 1913 the Elektroperedacha [Power Transmission] power plant was built in the Moscow suburb city of Bogorogsk (now called Noginsk). Elektroperedacha was a peat-burning power plant. It cost less to run a plant on peat than imported fuel oil. This was also the first time that a power plant’s construction had been financed by offering investors stakes in the capital of a subsidiary and affiliate.

In 1915 the Elektroperedacha power plant was connected to the plant on Raushkaya embankment by 35 kW power lines and subsequently 70 kW power lines. For the first time the Russian power sector introduced reserve generating capacity. This marked the birth of Moscow’s power network, serving as the prototype for Russia’s unified energy system today.

Development of power generation at the turn of the 20th century was a catalyst for rapid economic growth in Russia.

In the 1920s the management of the Moscow Association of State Power Plants (MASPP), involving G.M. Kryzhanovsky, I.I.Radchenko, A.V.Vinter, developed and started implementing the plan of GOELRO [State Commission for the Electrification of Russia]. This was the first state plan to consider the electrification of the whole country. It stipulated an almost fourfold increase in the capacity of the Moscow energy system from 93,000 kW – 340,000 kW within 10-15 years (the capacity of modernised and newly built plants had reached 820,000 kW by the mid-1930s). The following power plants were built as part of the MASPP system: the Kashirskaya GRES [state district power plant] Shaturskaya GRES, Novomoskovskaya GRES-10, Ivankovskaya GES [state power plant), Skhodenskaya GES and Uglichskaya GES-13, located outside Moscow. Moscow started to build a 155 kW ring power transmission line, which made it possible to provide for the first time to provide reserve capacity for power plants in the energy system. It was at this point that the country started establishing its first dispatcher service.

In the 1930s MOSENERGO built the first combined heat and power plants [CHP] as part of the MASPP energy system: CHP-6, CHP-7, CHP-8, CHP-9 and CHP-11.

From 1930-1950 MOSENERGO stepped up development of Moscow's generating capacity, bringing the largest power plants closer to consumers. Major combined heat and power plants were built in Moscow: CHP-9, CHP-12. CHP-16, CHP-17 and CHP-20.

At the end of the 1950s natural gas was used to generate electricity for the first time in Russia’s electricity sector at GES-1. Volgograd’s GES was connected to MOSENERGO’s power plants by 400 kW power transmission lines, thereby laying the foundations for the establishment of the Unified Energy System [UES] of the Centre.

During the 1960s and 1970s MOSENERGO started building «CHP-Millions» to meet the growing thermal power requirements of the economy in Moscow region and UES of the Centre. CHP were built within the 220 kW ring with unit power of over 1 million kW: CHP-21, CHP-22, CHP-23, CHP-25, CHP-26.

The Moscow energy system had a state-of-the-art configuration by the end of 1980s, following the commissioning of peak capacity – the Zagorskaya pumped storage power plant [ZaGAES] and gas turbine power units at GRES-3.

Today OAO MOSENERGO is the largest thermal generation plant in Russia, consisting of 17 power plants with total electric capacity of 10,600 MW and thermal power capacity amounting to 39,000 MW. MOSENERGO power plants account for 75% of Moscow’s heat power requirements and 85% of the electricity requirements of Moscow and Moscow Oblast.

MOSENERGO’s technical development strategy aims to meet electricity demand by commissioning highly efficient combined-cycle power units [PGU] and replacing combined heat and power equipment which has come to the end of its service life.

MOSENERGO has been building since 2005 new generation gas-steam power generating units at the system-forming CHP located in the 220 kW ring: CHP-21, CHP-26 ? CHP-27.

In 2007 MOSENERGO started to transfer the central CHP in Moscow to an economical gas-steam cycle, with a working capacity utilisation factor of over 90% (CHP-9, CHP-12). MOSENERGO plans to build gas-steam power generating units at the following CHP in Moscow and also at the system-forming CHP located in the 220 kW ring (CHP-27, CHP-25).

MOSENERGO is modernising equipment and building up generating capacity in accordance with the company’s Programme for Development and Re-equipment. Use of state-of-the-art gas-steam equipment with an efficiency factor of 57-59% in the condensation cycle (compared to an efficiency factor of no more than 38% at steam power plants with steam turbine units) makes it possible to meet increasing demand for electricity and heat in Moscow region and at the same time use 25% less gas and reduce hazardous emissions into the atmosphere by a third.

According to OAO MOSENERGO’s medium-term investment programme for 2007-2011, over 4 GW of new capacity is planned. Annual commissioning volumes will reach 800-900 MW. The company plans to maintain these generating capacity commissioning rates until 2020.