Meeting where energy is made, transforming power plants into open spaces where efficient, environmentally-friendly production models are learnt, sharing experiences, technologies and culture.
This sums up Enel Russia’s Open Plant project, which is in its eighth edition. It was founded as an opportunity to bring together the entities in the area and the facilities at the Group’s large-scale plants located in the Regions of Ural and Caucasus.
The initiative is an adaptation of an analogous (and homonymous) project that Enel in Italy has conducted since 2002. The project in Italy gives residents access to the rich technological patrimony present in the Italian plants, some of which have witnessed more than a century of the country’s industrial history (including the hydroelectric plants and the geothermal district in Tuscany). The plants are opened to residents who become familiar with the modalities and environmental standards that define how electric energy is generated.
Similarly, in Russia during Open Plants, the plants become a meeting place where we can explain what we do, describe the energy process, illustrate our great technological patrimony and create awareness about all of the initiatives underway to preserve and protect the environment and the territory.
In recent years, the project has been enhanced by events where visitors learn and discover possible ways to make their homes more efficient, ranging from ideas on how to save energy to electric bicycles. Opening the plants also encourages a direct route to circular economy with a special area outfitted for professionals, artists, entrepreneurs and local producers who have the opportunity to showcase their skill and their work. Open Plants is defined as interaction and sharing in the full spirit of “Open Power”.
The Open Plants initiative led to the Enel Russia project being awarded the “Grand Prix of initiatives in the sphere of energy dedicated to the projects for the development of young talents”, which was conferred at the end of November in Moscow during the fifth International Forum on Energy Efficiency and Energy Development (ENES 2016).
ENES is organised by the Ministry of Energy for the Russian Federation and the Government of Moscow. More than 11,000 people registered to participate in the Forum, which is the largest event in Russia in the area of development, introduction and implementation of energy-efficient technology and energy development.
During the 2016 edition of Open Plants in Russia, which was held in June at the plants in Reftinskaya GRES (Ural Region), Sredneuralskaya (Ural Region), Konakovskaya GRES (Tver Region) and Nevinnomysskaya GRES (Caucasus Region), more than 4,000 people visited the four Enel Russia plants while local residents, institutions and entrepreneurs got involved.