Director's Foreword

Welcome to the website of Energy Systems Institute (ESI) SB RAS. Our institute owes its creation to Academician L.A. Melentiev, a prominent scientist in the energy field, who suggested the idea of comprehensive energy study.  The ESI was established in August, 1960 within the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. L.A.Melentiev, its first director, succeeded in attracting the best graduates of institutes and collaborators of different organizations from Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Novosibirsk and Irkutsk who formed the scientific core of the Institute. In 1997 the Institute was named after L.A. Melentiev.

The key task of the Institute is comprehensive studies on energy in its broad sense. The objects of research and application are energy and physicotechnical systems: energy sectors of territories, regions, country and world, that comprise electric power, heat-, oil- and gas supply systems, coal industry, nuclear energy as well as prospective energy technologies and equipment.

ESI focuses on

  • the theory of development and control of energy systems and plants, 
  • scientific fundamentals and mechanisms for implementing the energy policy of Russia and its regions 

and aims at constructing and developing the theory and methods for system energy studies intended for

  • comprehensive analysis of energy sector and energy supply systems;
  • analysis of the world, national and regional trends;
  • generation of forecasts and determination of development priorities and strategies;
  • creation of the scientific and methodological basis for optimal planning, design and operation of the facilities and their computer-aided control;
  • provision of reliability and safety of the facilities;
  • creation of work stations for researchers, designers and operators in this field, etc.

Such orientation based on the application of advanced mathematical methods and computers was determined already at the moment of the Institute creation by L.A. Melentiev who always underlined «three sources and component parts» of the system energy studies: the principle of system methodology, according to which all phenomena should be considered in terms of the laws of the whole and interrelations of its parts; the comprehensive energy approach that was formulated by Academician G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, a teacher of L.A. Melentiev; and the practical need to study energy as a combination of actively developing energy systems which become more and more complex.

The well-known scientific schools have shaped here in the following directions.

  • Theory and methods of systems studies in the energy sector.
  • Study on interaction between the economy and energy. 
  • Scientific and methodological support of energy programs for Russia.
  • Theory and methods for comprehensive study and control.
  • Theory and methods for management and control of electric power system operation and development.
  • Theory of hydraulic circuits and methods for mathematical modelling and optimization of heat-, water-, oil- and gas-supply systems.
  • Theory and methods of extreme thermodynamics.
  • Methods for optimization of flow charts and parameters of thermal power plants.
  • Methods for forecasting of natural and climatic processes. 
  • Mathematical methods for optimization and numerical analysis and their applications. 
  • Information technologies for energy applications. 

The Institute is engaged in analysis and forecasting of the main trends in energy development of the world, Russia, Siberia; energy programs of different levels; concepts and general schemes for development of industries comprising the fuel and energy complex; new information and computer technologies for studies and control of the energy sector; problems in creation of interregional and international systems of fuel and energy supply. 

ESI SB RAS has extensive international contacts with different institutions of the European countries and NIS, Japan, China, the USA and is in fact a center of energy studies in both Russia and the world.

Over the years the institute has become known for its active and effective staff, one third of which are young researchers. This team of like-minded people can cope with any challenges in development and operation of current and future energy systems.

Prof. Valery A. Stennikov
Director,
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences

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