Academic literature on the topic 'Union for the Coordination of the Production and Transport of Electric Power'

The majority of on-road vehicles today are powered by internal combustion engines, which are, in most cases, burning petroleum-derived liquid fuels mixed with bio-components. The power to weight ratio of internal combustion engines combined with the high energy content of conventional fuels, which can be refilled easily in matter of minutes, makes them ideal for all kinds of road transportation. Since the introduction of EURO emissions norms, the emissions from the Transport sector in the European Union have undergone significant reduction. There are several alternatives to fossil fuels with similar properties, which can replace their usage in the Transport sector. The main focus of research in recent decades has been on biofuels, which can be produced from several sources. The production of biofuels is usually energy more intensive than production of fossil fuels, but their usage can contribute to emission reduction in the Transport sector. In recent years, a lot of effort was also put into promotion of electric vehicles as zero emissions vehicles. This statement should be reconsidered, since the greenhouse impact of electrical vehicles is not negligible. Conversely, in some cases, an electrical vehicle can have an even higher emission impact than modern vehicles with sophisticated internal combustion engines. This is characteristic for countries where the majority of the electricity is produced in coal power plants. With the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions in the Electricity Production sector, and with the increase of battery capacity, the role of electric vehicles in the Transport sector will probably increase. Despite significant research and financial investments in electric vehicles development, the transport sector in near future will be mostly powered by internal combustion engines and petroleum-derived liquid fuels. The amount of pollution from transport sector will be further regulated with stricter emission norms combined with smaller amount of alternative fuel usage.

Import substitution in the energy sector requires development in Russia of a group of new industries and modernization of existing capacities. That calls for integrating the structures of fundamental and applied science, education, power engineering production, energy generation and electricity transport in the framework of a complete innovation cycle. The key to the problem solution is forming an integrated mechanism for planning and management of scientific-research, power engineering and electric power segments as parts of a single technological chain of work and procurement from basic research to equipment disposal. The R&D result should be a package sectoral order for equipment and technologies — a new planning and coordination tool in the market environment of Russian energy and power engineering. It is proposed to build a new information control loop in the energy sector of Russia to form the basis of a package order within the industry in order to establish medium- and long-term scientific and technical planning for replacing retiring equipment, tracking contracts and monitoring results of their implementation.

The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from the transport sector are diesel- and gasoline-powered passenger cars. The combustion of large amounts of conventional fuels by cars contributes to a significant release of various compounds into the atmosphere, such as solid particles, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. In order to reduce these pollutants in places of their high concentration (especially in urban agglomerations), the use of ecological means of transport for daily driving is highly recommended. Electric vehicles (EV) are characterized by ecological potential due to their lack of direct emissions and low noise. However, in Poland and many other countries, electricity production is still based on fossil fuels which can significantly influence the indirect emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere associated with battery charging. Thus, indirect emissions from electric cars may be comparable or even higher than direct emissions related to the use of traditional cars. Therefore, the aim of the work was to analyze the amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with the use of electric vehicles for daily driving (City, Sedan, SUV) and their impact on the environment on a local and global scale. Based on the assumed daily number of kilometers driven by the vehicle and the collected certified catalog data (Car Info Nordic AB), the direct emissions generated by the internal combustion engines (ICE) were calculated for specific cars. These values were compared to the indirect emissions related to the source of electricity generation, for the calculation of which the CO2 emission coefficient for a particular energy source and energy mix was used, as well as reference values of electricity generation efficiency in a given combustion installation, in accordance with the KOBiZE (The National Centre for Emissions Management) and European Union regulation. Indirect emissions generated from non-renewable fuels (lignite, hard coal, natural gas, diesel oil, heating oil, municipal waste) and renewable emissions (wind energy, solar energy, hydro energy, biomass, biogas) were considered. The results indicated that for the Polish case study, indirect carbon dioxide emission associated with the daily driving of EV (distance of 26 km) ranges 2.49–3.28 kgCO2∙day−1. As a result, this indirect emission can be even higher than direct emissions associated with ICE usage (2.55–5.64 kgCO2∙day−1).

Throughout decades, conflicts related to the access and usage of various energy sources have caused political tensions between nations and confederations of states. Thus, partially to decrease the dependence on fossil fuels, a thorough transition towards renewable energies has been promoted by several regional and national governments as well as by multinational institutions such as the European Union. In this context, the automotive industry has particularly been held responsible for the production of negative externalities, such as global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions), noise and air pollution. To a notable extent, these externalities were caused by vehicles running on fossil fuels such as petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel and fuel oil. Accordingly, it is often argued that replacing vehicles run by internal combustion engines (ICEs) with so-called alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), particularly with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), is crucial to increase the sustainability of the transport sector. Moreover, several EU-member states aim to reduce the vehicle-related petrol and diesel demand to decrease their dependence on foreign energy sources. However, one must consider that there are important economic costs related to such a transition process. This paper evaluates the short-term and long-term effects of fiscal policies on the European automotive market in the period from 2010 to 2018, focusing on the impact of mentioned public incentives for AFVs. This public interventionism will be critically evaluated to examine the effectiveness of government incentives in promoting AFVs, particularly for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). The author argues that the rather positive sales evolution of AFVs was not caused by corresponding actual customer demand but mainly by governmental policies in an increasingly interventionist market. He acknowledges that the growing variety of available PEV models, the increasing driving range of electric vehicles, as well as their decreasing production costs due to economies of scale, have helped PEVs to become more competitive. However, the concern should be raised that mentioned public interventionism is unsustainable from a macroeconomic perspective, possibly leading to significant market distortion and a new artificial market bubble. The narrowed focus on battery electric vehicles prevents the market from further elaborating on other potentially more sustainable technologies. Moreover, from a geostrategic perspective, the transition of the European automotive industry towards electrification is likely to reduce the EU’s dependency on imported fossil fuels but enables several non-European automotive brands to conquer a significant market with their new competitive plug-in electric vehicle technologies.

Received 13.01.2021. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated global economic, technological and social transformation, including the energy sector, and has given the impetus to energy transition from organic fuels to clean energy sources. Though oil will remain an important energy resource in the global energy balance, in the long run renewables will become the leading energy. The European Union and China are the leaders in implementation of energy transition strategies from fossil to clean energy. The transformation in the energy market has affected dramatically the relations between producers and consumers, who now actively determine the consumption trends (for example, green energy, electric vehicles, etc.). Distributed generation and blockchain in power industry enable the consumers to play an active part in the electricity production and distribution chains. Digital transformation and climate agenda are changing the structure of energy business from vertically integrated companies to knowledge-intensive networks. Investors almost unanimously vote for renewable energy. The largest oil and gas companies change their long-term strategies and transform into energy holdings with the prevailing share of renewables in the business structure. Hydrogen attracts particular attention as a promising energy source. The EU plans to develop hydrogen transport infrastructure. For its part, Russia has the ability to supply hydrogen to the European market through the existing gas pipelines. Coronacrisis accelerated the development of online services, artificial intelligence, and distant work. Education and telemedicine received a powerful impetus for further development. Еducation becomes continuous process in the digital world. New educational ecosystems in which skills and competencies are worked out on an interdisciplinary basis are formed. Digital transformation meets the expectations of the generation Z, which in the coming decades will become economically active and will dominate in social and economic agenda. Digitalization, adaptive nature-like technologies, environmentally friendly energy resources, flexible horizontal network between market participants are already a post-COVID reality.

The article is concerned with the anthropology of a city. As an instrument of conceptualization, we used a three-dimensional scheme: organization — communication — information, which allows giving the urban interpre-tation for each of the coordinates, and then, using the two-dimensional projections (organization-information, or-ganization-communication, information-communication), to develop a concept of the three-dimensional image of city. It has been proposed to distinguish three types of organizational structures when considering the city as an organization: hierarchical, algorithmic, and relational. The necessity of curbing the growth of the city and solidat-ing it in the context of communication has produced a number of projections. One of them, "A compact city or city of short distances" has been considered. The concept of a compact city is based on the cost-effective public transport system, and it encourages pedestrian traffic and cycling. When considering the city as an organization, the main focus lies on its structure. From a topological point of view, it has been proposed to distinguish between three types of such structures: hierarchical, algorithmic, and relational. A hierarchical structure represents a tree of power hierarchy, but its content is not necessarily associated with consistent delegation of authority power (from top to bottom) or gradual accumulation of information (from the bottom up). Thus, a library catalogue, as well as other classification means, is arranged on the principle of hierarchy. An algorithmic structure is a scheme of production process which consists of a set of sequential operations. Its mathematical model appears as a net-work diagram. Typical examples of such structures include an algorithm of construction of a building, from founda-tion to roof, a conveyed assembly of complex technical devices, etc. In relation to a city, this structure can be filled with different content. Thus, carrying out of repair and maintenance in one of the city networks often requires not only formal coordination, but also a network schedule of joint work with other community services (water, electric-ity grid, heating, communication lines, etc.). A relational structure is a group of objects of arbitrary nature, usually of the same type, singled out from the total quantity of objects on the basis of any common feature. A complex of educational or medical institutions, trade companies, domestic services, etc. could be an example of such group within the organizational structure of a city.

The study of rural population in the regional context makes it possible to identify demographic problems and analyze the factors influencing the state of rural population and settlements of the republic on the example of the Predvolzhsky agrarian economic region (Predvolzhie) of the Republic of Tatarstan with predominantly rural population. The period for considering the development of the rural population of the economic region was chosen from 1959 to 2019, since the Soviet period of the development of the planned economy and the formation of market relations in agriculture in the republic has its own characteristics and aspects. A significant impact on the rural population of the republic was exerted by the large-scale diversified development of industrial production: the automotive industry, petrochemical production, and the electric power industry. The study reveals the complex impact of historical, geographical, social, economic, transport factors affecting the demographic processes in the rural population of this economic region. The dynamics of changes in the main indicators of demographic processes of the rural population of the Volga region is considered on the example of Apastovsky, Buinsky, Drozhzhanovsky, Kaibitsky, Kamsko-Ustinsky and Tetyushsky rural municipal districts of the Republic of Tatarstan. The article shows the internal territorial differences in the population density of the Predvolzhsky economic region and analyzes the main demographic indicators (birth rate, mortality, decline in dynamics over 60 years), and also reveals positive and negative trends of these indicators using the example of specific municipal areas. The analysis of changes in the dynamics of the rural population and settlements and the reasons for its decrease is presented on the basis of statistical materials of the All-Union and All-Russian population censuses. The article identifies three periods of development of the rural population in the municipal districts of the Predvolzhsky economic region of the Republic of Tatarstan, which reflect the general picture of the vector of development of the rural population of the republic in the period under study. The current crisis state of the demographic indicators of the agrarian economic region shows the need for targeted management decisions in this direction. The research emphasizes that at the moment the country people need economic stability. Existence in rural areas of jobs, the stable salary will allow to stabilize a situation of reduction of country people.