Students of Lanzhou University of Technology came to the Mining University to participate in the International Summer School, named ”Modern Energy Technologies”.
Last summer, both undergraduate and postgraduate students from Chinese university took training within exactly the same programme. Upon finishing their internship, they admitted being impressed by Saint-Petersburg as well as by the studies themselves.
This year, three groups of students - over a hundred people - participated in the programme. In addition to energy-related topics, school participants were interested in engineering geodesy and the course on the Russian language and culture.
Development prospects and enhancement of solutions for centralized, self-contained and combined power supply systems is a matter of interest for power engineers, IT specialists, industrial process automation engineers, specialists in electrical engineering. It explains the popularity and relevance of this course.
According to Yury Zhukovsky, Director of the Scientific Digital Technologies Center, the Head of the Summer School, ”Primary energy consumption on our continent will grow by more than 2500 million tons of oil equivalent in the next 20 years. In connection with this, integration of energy systems is the basis for sustainable development of our future world. It is clear that the main vector of growth is development of energy and infrastructure corridors, which may be seen from such projects as Asian Energy Super Ring, the Northeast Passage navigation, restoration of the United Energy System of Central Asia, unification of the following energy systems — Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran and Russia-Georgia-Armenia-Iran. Therefore, engineer workers of Russia and China need to understand each other, we need to be able to speak the same language of technology".
Most of the lectures were devoted to familiarisation with the principles of intelligent networks formation, with special attention having been paid to modern methods of ensuring the quality of electricity.
As Wang Maomao, Master’s Degree student said ”I was quite impressed by equipment of those labs where we studied. Though the individual approach was something that impressed me the most. When programming or learning how to use specific software programs and applications built for "smart home” appliances - it was the teachers who helped us get past the problems arising in the course of experiment, make sense of the problem and eliminate the errors; they led each student - without exception - towards desirable learning outcome”.
Practical courses, for example, on relay protection and automation of power facilities helped future specialists in energetics realise the need for a change, understand the role of the fourth industrial revolution "Industrial 4.0” and how digital and information technologies affect this transformation.
Guo Lixian, another Master’s student, also shared his impressions of the studies ”Thanks to the summer school programme, we - students - have understanding of the modern energy types and how the Earth energy budget may change depending on the global situation. I would like to specifically emphasise quality of presentations: highly relevant statistics, a large number of graphs and diagrams presenting data visually; finally, a constant two-way communication makes it easier to process the information”.
Case competitions have become an essential part of the summer schools this year. Chinese students were offered to have a look into the future and imagine how information and digital technologies would help to integrate electric vehicles into the energy system of the "smart city". In addition, students had to present their own vision of how electric vehicle charging stations should be laid out within the city of Saint-Petersburg for the period 2020-2030. Taking into account that number of electric cars is expected to grow and power transmission capacity should be set accordingly, it is more than likely that in the nearest future this task will turn into a real challenge.
School participants also had a number of field trips, where they were familiarised with algorithms and methods of controlling energy consumption and supply modes. As an example, they visited the currently operating Krestovskaya digital substation which supplies with energy Krestovsky Stadium, serving as a football arena. The 110 kV substation was built using the latest technologies and equipment and characteristically exhibits high reliability and technological effectiveness
At the training ground of Lenenergo, one of the largest distribution network service providers in Russia, students from China acquired practical understanding of electric distribution networks functioning. Students also had a visit to a research and development center of "Mekhanotronika" company to learn more about relay protection and automation units.
Li Kaixin, post-graduate student in her second year, gave his notes on the studies ”We started from simple things and then gradually moved to more complex issues. Through the field trips, we gained an understanding of how Russian enterprises and modern energy infrastructure work, learnt about transport systems and equipment used in energy management systems. Most of all, I liked the "Digital substation" training class and our visit to the training ground, where they had a Museum of the history of the energy blockade in Leningrad".
