Scenarios for electricity power sector development in the North-West of Russia

Focus of this thesisis made on development of electricity sector of Russian North-West. The objective was to determine the most likely scenarios for development of the most critical (western) part of Interregional Power System of North-West, from where the most part of Russian electricity exports to the countries of European Union take place. For this purpose all the involved sides were analyzed: generation, transmission system and electricity consumption in different regions of Russian North-West. The analysis was performed through investigation of existing generation andtransmission capacities and plans for their development to be performed by the generation and transmission companies operating in the region. Principles of Russian electricity sector restructuring and electricity market design are also discussed as well as factors that may influence on future electricity price in the region.

Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in North-West Russia - Finnish Business Opportunities

Tutkimus suomalaisten yritysten liiketoimintamahdollisuuksista hiilidoksidipäästöjen vähentämisen parissa Luoteis-Venäjällä.

Phylogeography and population genetics of north European Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.)

Although abundant in the number of individuals, the Atlantic salmon may be considered as a threatened species in many areas of its native distribution range. Human activities such as building of power plant dams, offshore overfishing, pollution, clearing of riverbeds for timber floating and badly designed stocking regimes have diminished the distribution of Atlantic salmon. As a result of this, many of the historical populations both in Europe and northern America have gone extinct or are severely depressed. In fact, only 1% of Atlantic salmon existing today are of natural origin, the rest being farmed salmon. All of this has lead to a vast amount of research and many restoration programmes aiming to bring Atlantic salmon back to rivers from where it has vanished. However, many of the restoration programmes conducted thus far have been unsuccessful due to inadequate scientific research or lack of its implementation, highlighting the fact that more research is needed to fully understand the biology of this complex species. The White and Barents Seas in northwest Russia are among the last regions in Europe where Atlantic salmon populations are still stable, thus forming an important source of biodiversity for the entire European region. Salmon stocks from this area are also of immense economic and social importance for the local people in the form of fishing tourism. The main aim of this thesis was to elucidate the post-glacial history and population genetic structure of north European and particularly northwest Russian Atlantic salmon, both of which are aspects of great importance for the management and conservation of the species. Throughout the whole thesis, these populations were studied by utilizing microsatellites as the main molecular tool. One of the most important discoveries of the thesis was the division of Atlantic salmon from the White and Barents Seas into four separate clusters, which has not been observed in previous studies employing nuclear markers although is supported by mtDNA studies. Populations from the western Barents Sea clustered together with the northeast Atlantic populations into a clearly distinguishable group while populations from the White Sea and eastern Barents Sea were separated into three additional groups. This has important conservation implications as this thesis clearly indicates that conservation of populations from all of the observed clusters is warranted in order to conserve as much of the genetic diversity as possible in this area. The thesis also demonstrates how differences in population life histories within a species, migratory behaviour in this case, and in their phylogeographic origin affect the genetic characteristics of populations, namely diversity and divergence levels. The anadromous populations from the Atlantic Ocean, White Sea and Barents Sea possessed higher levels of genetic diversity than the anadromous populations form the Baltic Sea basin. Among the non-anadromous populations the result was the opposite: the Baltic freshwater populations were more variable. This emphasises the importance of taking the life history of a population into consideration when developing conservation strategies: due to the limited possibilities for new genetic diversity to be generated via gene flow, it is expected that freshwater Atlantic salmon populations would be more vulnerable to extinction following a population crash and thus deserve a high conservation status. In the last chapter of this thesis immune relevant marker loci were developed and screened for signatures of natural selection along with loci linked to genes with other functions or no function at all. Also, a novel landscape genomics method, which combines environmental information with molecular data, was employed to investigate whether immune relevant markers displayed significant correlations to various environmental variables more frequently than other loci. Indications of stronger selection pressure among immune-relevant loci compared to non-immune relevant EST-linked loci was found but further studies are needed to evaluate whether it is a common phenomenon in Atlantic salmon.

Modelling of North-West Russian market behavior considering technical restrictions of transmission grid

Nowadays the Finnish-Russian electric energy interaction is carried out through the back-to-back DC Vyborg substation and several power plants working synchronously with Finnish power system. Constant amount of energy flows in one direction — from Russia to Finland. But the process of electricity market development in Russian energy system makes the new possibilities of electrical cooperation available. The goal of master's thesis is to analyze the current state and possible evolution trends of North-West Russian system in relation with future possible change in power flow between Russia and Finland. The research is done by modelling the market of North-West Russia and examination of technical grid restrictions. The operational market models of North-West region of Russia for the years 2008 and 2015 were created during the research process. The description of prepared market models together with modelling results and their analysis are shown in the work. The description of power flow study process and results are also presented.

Feasibility Study and Market Review of Small Scale Bioenergy Heating Plants in North-West Russia

The paper is focused on feasibility study and market review of small scale bioenergy heating plants in the Russian North-West region. The main focus is effective and competitive usage of low-grade wood for heating purposes in the region. As example of economical feasibility estimation it was chosen the project of reconstruction of small scale boiler plant in Leningrad region that Brofta Oy is planning to implement the nearest time. It includes calculation the payback time with and without interest, the estimation of probable investments, the evaluation of possible risks and research on the potential of small scale heating plants projects. Calculations show that the profitability of this kind of projects is high, but payback time is not very short, because of high level of initial investments. Though, the development of small scale bioenergy heating plants in the region is considered to be the best way to solve the problems of heat supply in small settlements using own biomass resources.

Research of wood fuel market in North-West of Russia

The main purposes of this study are analyzing of forest sector of North-West and research of potentials of wood fuel market in this region. Research is focused on definition of the most perspective areas for export of wood fuel: logging residues, industrial wood processing residues, pellets and briquettes. Russian wood energy industry is very young in comparison with European countries. Nowadays there are no support and serious attention from the government to this sector. Hence almost all wood fuel market is oriented to the Western Europe. Export of wood fuel is dominated over the internal consumption. Pellet production in North –West is rapidly growing. Despite internal market has been developed the lion's share of pellets goes to export. Part of industrial wood processing residues is used by producers for their own goals, part goes to the export and rest of them is not used at all. Logging residues as raw materials for fuel have great potentials; most of them are left in a forest. Special techniques for their processing are too expensive for Russian entrepreneur. Some parts of North –West, which are situated close to the border with European countries, are potential for export. Political, economical and logistical challenges are complicated facilities for foreign customer to purchase wood fuel in remote parts of North-West. However some decisions for solving this problem exist and Russian manufactures are still interested in export of their products.

Utilisation of biomass for energy production in the North-West Russian forest industry

Traditionally, fossil fuels have always been the major sources of the modern energy production. However prices on these energy sources have been constantly increasing. The utilization of local biomass resources for energy production can substitute significant part of the required energy demand in different energy sectors. The introduction of the biomass usage can easily be started in the forest industry first as it possesses biomass in a large volume. The forest industry energy sector has the highest potential for the fast bioenergy development in the North-West Russia. Therefore, the question concerning rational and effective forest resources use is important today as well as the utilization of the forestry by-products. This work describes and analyzes the opportunities of utilising biomass, mainly, in the form of the wood by-products, for energy production processes in general, as well as for the northwest Russian forest industry conditions. The study also covers basic forest industry processes and technologies, so, the reader can get familiar with the information about the specific character of the biomass utilization. The work gives a comprehensive view on the northwest forest industry situation from the biomass utilisation point of view. By presenting existing large-scale sawmills and pulp and paper mills the work provides information for the evaluation of the future development of CHP investments in the northwest Russian forest industry.

Strategic choices and performance – an empirical analysis of largest European and North American energy companies

Energy industry has gone through major changes globally in past two decades. Liberalization of energy markets has led companies to integrate both vertically and horizontally. Growing concern on sustainable development and aims to decrease greenhouse gases in future will increase the portion of renewable energy in total energy production. Purpose of this study was to analyze using statistical methods, what impacts different strategic choices has on biggest European and North American energy companies’ performance. Results show that vertical integration, horizontal integration and use of renewable energy in production had the most impact on profitability. Increase in level of vertical integration decreased companies’ profitability, while increase in horizontal integration improved companies’ profitability. Companies that used renewable energy in production were less profitable than companies not using renewable energy.

Traffic flow development at North European company level with respect of China and Russia

The aim of the thesis is to analyze traffic flows and its development from North European companies` point of view to China and Russia using data from logistics questionnaire. Selected North European companies are large Finnish and Swedish companies. The questionnaire was sent via email to the target group. The study is based on the answers got from respondent companies from years 2006, 2009 and 2010. In the thesis Finnish Talouselämä newspaper and Swedish Affärsdata are used as a database to find the target companies for the survey. Respondents were most often logistics managers in companies. In the beginning of the thesis concepts of transportation logistics is presented, including container types, trade terms, axel loads in roads and in railways. Also there is information about warehousing types and terminals. After that, general information of Chinese and Russian transportation logistics is presented. Chinese and Russian issues are discussed in two sections. In both of them it is analyzed economic development, freight transport and trade balance. Some practical examples of factory inaugurations in China and Russia are presented that Finnish and Swedish companies have completed. In freight transport section different transportation modes, logistics outsourcing and problems of transportation logistics is discussed. The results of the thesis show that transportation flows between Europe and China is changing. Freight traffic from China to European countries will strengthen even more from the current base. When it comes to Russia and Europe, traffic flows seem to be changing from eastbound traffic to westbound traffic. It means that in the future it is expected more freight traffic from Russia to Europe. Some probable reasons for that are recent factory establishments in Russia and company interviews support also this observation. Effects of the economic recession are mainly seen in the lower transportation amounts in 2009.

Travels through Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, to the North Cape, in the years 1798 and 1799 : by Joseph Acerbi. In two volumes. Illustrated with seventeen elegant engravings. Vol. I[-II].

Vol. I: Portrait of Joseph Acerbi. Painted by P. Violet, engr. by P. W. Tomkins.

Travels through Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, to the North Cape, in the years 1798 and 1799 : by Joseph Acerbi. In two volumes. Illustrated with seventeen elegant engravings. Vol. I[-II].

Vol. I: Portrait of Joseph Acerbi. Painted by P. Violet, engr. by P. W. Tomkins.

Perspectives for the production and usage of wood chips as a source of energy in the North-West of Russia

The development of bioenergy on the basis of wood fuels has received considerable attention in the last decades. The combination of large forest resources and reliance on fossil fuels makes the issue of wood chips usage in Russia an actual topic for the analysis. The main objective of this study is to disclose the current state and perspectives for the production of wood chips and their usage as a source of energy in the North-West of Russia. The study utilizes an integrated approach to explore the market of wood chips on the basis of comprehensive analysis of documentation and expert opinions. The analysis of wood chips market was performed for eight regions of the North-West district of Russia within two major dimensions: its current state and perspectives in the nearest five years. The results of the study show a comprehensive picture of the wood chips market, including the potential for wood chips production, the specific features of production and consumption and the perspectives for the market development within the regions of the North-West district of Russia. The study demonstrated that the market of wood chips is underdeveloped in the North-West of Russia. The findings of the work may be used by forest companies for the strategic planning.