To say that Secretary Chu’s two days in Moscow have been busyis a bit of an understatement. His days were filled with meetings,speaking engagements and the U.S.-Russia Energy Working Group meeting.The Working Group is part of the broader Administration effort topromote cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.
Most notably, the Secretary signed two important energy agreements.The first was cosigned with Rosatom General Director Sergey Kiriyenkoregarding U.S.-Russia joint nuclear cooperation. The agreement builds onpast nuclear cooperation and includes support for national andinternational efforts on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, foradvancing research efforts and for the development of a legal frameworkto expand joint activities between our countries on nuclear research.
Secretary Chu and Rosatom General Director Sergey Kiriyenko sigh the U.S.-Russia joint nuclear cooperation agreement. | Courtesy of: Dan Leistikow
Secondly, Secretary Chu signed a joint statement with RussianMinister of Energy Sergei Shmatko following the Energy Working Groupmeeting concerning their action plan for the coming year. There are manyfacets to this plan, including a previously announced Smart Grid sister city project between San Diego and Belgorod, an Energy Savings Performance Contract pilot program in development in St. Petersburg and several clean energyjoint research projects. The St. Petersburg project, in particular,would be the first of its kind in Russia and is designed to improveenergy efficiency while lessening the up-front costs that might detercities from installing more efficient systems in their existing publicbuildings.
Energy Cooperation Moving Forward
Discussionswith Russia’s Federal Grid Company, which maintains the country’selectrical grid, showed that Russia and the U.S. face many of the samechallenges. Both countries have an aging power distribution networkspread over a vast area of land. Roughly two thirds of Russia’stransmission lines are more than 25 years old. And, in recent years,Russia has dealt with costly blackouts in St. Petersburg and Moscow muchlike the infamous blackout that blanketed the northeastern United States in 2003.
Another common challenge we face is energy storage. In fact, Indiana-based Ener1is manufacturing cutting-edge lithium ion batteries that are beinginstalled in Russia and will help improve the stability and reliabilityof their grid as they prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Andwe continue looking for opportunities to learn from each other beyondjust the modernization of the electrical grid. During this trip, theSecretary also toured a Russian LED manufacturing facility, witnessed nuclear material detection systems in action and discussed ongoing nuclear security cooperation.He met with Rusano, a Russian state-owned company developingnanotechnologies, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences andparticipated in a roundtable with climate change experts.
Globalproblems are called that for a reason; we’re all dealing with them. Andthe best way to find a solution is to work together as we figure outhow to improve nuclear security, find better ways to store and transmitenergy and respond to future challenges.
Lindsey Geisler is a Public Affairs Specialist with the Office of Public Affairs.