Energy security is one of CSTO PA lawmaking areas

On December 22, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan celebrate Energy Industry Workers’ Day. The Republic of Kazakhstan has already celebrated it last Sunday.
The date of December 22 was chosen for a reason: on this day in 1920 the State Plan for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO plan) was adopted.
Traditionally, this day is considered to mark the beginning of the energy industry in our great country. However, it is not entirely true.
The first power plant in the European part of Russia, the Okhtinskaya HPP with 300 kW capacity, was built in 1895 to supply electricity to the Okhtinsky Gunpowder Factory in St Petersburg.
Until 1914, Russia’s energy capacity was growing, but alas, woefully slowly.
So undoubtedly, the GOELRO plan was a technological breakthrough. Thanks to it, the level of power generation reached in Russia by the beginning of the First World War was already surpassed in 1925.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union decided to move Energy Industry Workers’ Day so that it would always fall on a day off, and chose the third Sunday of December. But gradually the old date was returned. Today, among the CSTO States, only the Republic of Kazakhstan celebrates Energy Industry Workers’ Day on the third Sunday of December. In 2015, the Russian Federation returned to the old date, December 22.
By the way, there is a certain symbolism in the date chosen for Energy Industry Workers’ Day. December 22 is also Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
Today Russia is the world’s fourth largest electric power generator and the largest electricity exporter.
The capacity of over one and a half thousand power plants in the Russian Federation alone is almost 240 GW. Annual electric power generation is 1,053.8 billion kWh.
All CSTO Member States have their own considerable energy capacities.
The CSTO Parliamentary Assembly pays special attention to issues of energy security. The model law On Energy Security was adopted by the Assembly on October 13, 2017.
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