From network reconstruction to instrument control: how Belarus saves heat and electricity

First Deputy General Director and Chief Engineer of Belenergo Mikhail Shevaldin told how Belarus saves heat and electricity. At the same time, he stressed that the dynamics of technological losses of thermal and electric energy is constantly monitored.

“The work we are doing to modernize and renovate the grids on both the electric and thermal grids is having a tangible effect. The heat networks have already reached a fairly high figure. We have reduced losses, which in 2010 amounted to more than 10 percent. In 2026, we fix less than 6 percent in the first half of the year and continue to work to reduce them, Mikhail Shevaldin shared the results of his work.

However, much depends on a set of factors: regime measures, loading networks and heat sources, as well as weather conditions. He noted that in cold weather the thermal equipment works more efficiently.

Specialists have also made significant progress on electric grids. If in the early 2010s the level of technological losses exceeded 11%, today this figure is close to below 8%. The reduction of losses was brought as a key performance indicator (KPI) to the heads of all 139 districts of electric grids (RES) of the country.

" This is not only the modernization and reconstruction of networks, but also targeted work with consumers, the identification of unaccounted consumption, the introduction of energy-efficient equipment. For example, if a small consumer installed unreasonably powerful transformer, there are significant losses of idling. In such cases, we replace the equipment with less powerful ones. We also monitor the load balance by phase in order to avoid distortions, and strive to optimally correlate generation sources with consumption points. It is a painstaking and continuous process. We set the same ambitious goals for subordinate enterprises that the Head of State sets for the entire industry, concluded Mikhail Shevaldin.