Russian Energy Efficiency Potential: Scale, Costs, and Benefits

This paper considers the economy-wide Russian energy efficiency potential. It is split by sectors and energy carriers and is presented in the form of an energy efficiency balance table for Russia. The assessment has shown that the Russian energy efficiency potential amounts to 45% of 2005 primary energy consumption, or 294 mtoe (excluding of gas flaring). This is about annual primary energy consumption in France, the U.K. or the Ukraine, half of energy consumption in Japan, and over 2% of global primary energy consumption. Related CO2 emission reduction is 50% of Russian 2005 emission. Special attention is given to methodological issues in aggregating potentials identified for each sector and to the evaluation of indirect energy efficiency gains. This study has found that the energy efficiency potential identified doubles, if associated energy use reduction in the energy production and transformation sector and technologic progress are accounted for. Cost curves for energy efficiency improvements have been developed using the incremental costs approach to identify the cost-effective part of the potential. Active government policy is needed in order to achieve the goal of 40% reduction of GDP energy intensity to 2020.