The first stage of the International Youth Energy Forum-2018 was held from 9^th to 11^th April, 2018 at Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.

The event was attended by teams containing  10 young professionals each from the following countries:

1. People's Republic of China;
2. Republic of Belarus;
3. Russian Federation;
4. Federal Republic of Germany.

The Energy Forum has been organized annually by ROSSETI since 2014. The working language of the forum is English. The forum provides for remote and full-time work. Full-time work is organised in the form of lectures and team sessions.

Remote work involves self-preparation of projects, and team Skype discussions. At the lecture sessions the experts speak on certain topics, teams deliver speeches and protect intermediate projects. At team sessions the teams develop projects are and prepare intermediate presentations.

As a rule, 45 to 90 minutes are given to develop the solutions and prepare the intermediate presentations. The spirit of rallying, mutual aid and rivalry, and the atmosphere of “start-up” govern at the forum. There is almost no free time scheduled, the time allowed for the coffee breaks is traditionally used by the teams to finalize projects.

Besides classes, the forum provides teambuilding activities such as: volleyball, Moscow sightseeing, visiting electric power facilities. As part of the first stage of the forum, a visit to the underground 220/20 kV substation Skolkovo supplying the Skolkovo Innovation Center was organized.

Young specialists who represented Belarus, as part of the team of the State Production Association Belenergo at the first stage of the forum were:

RUE Belenergosetproekt:

• Dul Ivan, OPES engineer of the 1^st category.
• Drako Mikhail, OUKE Head of the laboratory.
• Tikhomirova Victoria, OS engineer.

JSC Belelektromontazhnaladka:

• Parepko Sergey, RZIA, APCS TP and TM commissioning and testing engineer.

In general, the team of SPA Belenergo also included young professionals who would assist the development of the project at the stage of remote work, and at the following stages of the forum:

SPA Belenergo:

• Shevaldin Mikhail, Head of the department OERZAEIES.

RUE Belenergosetproekt:

• Lomeiko Vladimir, ORZA leading engineer.
• Sokolova Marina, OPS engineer.
• Beseda Alexandra, OPS engineer.

JSC Belelektromontazhnaladka:

• Lavrinovich Artur, RPAA commissioning and testing engineer.

RUE ODU:

• Bulavko Alexey, Electrical Operation Modes engineer.

The efforts of the teams this year were focused on “digitalization” problems in Power system.

“Digitalization” is being accompanied by the following co-oriented trends:

• decarbonization;
• decentralization.

As for Power systems “digitalization” the SPA Belenergo team identified the following main challenges:

• Automation of 6-35 kV networks;
• Cybersecurity in the Power system;
• To create a model of electric vehicles infrastructure development.

The vote poll proved that “Automation of 6-35 kV networks” was identified as the most significant challenge for Belarusian team.

Similarly, the voting results selected the following tasks to be the most challenging out of the proposed by the teams from other countries:

• China - Increasing the capacity of China’s grids from the load center to the renewable energy generation center;
• Russia – Smart management of Power system;
• Germany - The integration of electric vehicles in the power system of Germany.

Skolkovo specialists distributed the selected challenge tasks among the teams according to the following scheme:

• The challenge highlighted by the Belarusian team - Automation of 6-35 kV networks - was assigned to the team from China.
• The challenge indicated by the Chinese team - Increasing the capacity of China’s grids from the load center to the renewable energy generation center - was assigned to the team from Russia.
• The challenge indicated by the Russian team - Smart management of Power system - was assigned to the team from Germany.
• The challenge designated by the German team - The integration of electric vehicles in the power system of Germany - was given to a team from Belarus.

In order to complete the challenge tasks, teams outlined problems to solve and several options to work out.

The outlined options were then agreed with the teams that indicated them.

Thus, feedback was organized and relations were built between the teams on the principle of "customer-developer".

The first stage of the forum ended at a joint meeting in the administrative center of ROSSETI.

The meeting included the defense of preliminary design solutions, as well as their assessment by experts.

According to the project decisions outlined by the Belarusian team, the experts suggested considering the task in several ways:

• re-examine the role of the electric vehicle a means of transport;
• to work out the possibilities of modern digital technologies in the context of the integration of electric vehicles: big data, blockchain, internet of things;
• take into account the experience of integrating electric buses into the public transport network.

The youth forum is a discussion platform for young power engineering specialists and an effective tool for integrating young people from different countries, it contributes to the formation of an innovative approach in solving the most important challenges in Power systems.