The case contest Advanced Natural Gas Future ran on 3 October at ExpoForum, as part of the Youth Day during the 8th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum. The event is held for the fourth time and is devoted to exploring the possibilities of inter-sectoral and transcontinental integration of participants in the global gas sector.
According to the terms of the youth case contest, national teams, selected in advance, get into the final part of the competition. The finalists work out a business case solution and present it to an expert jury. Contestants of the case included student teams from England, Germany, China, the Netherlands and Russia. This time, there was yet one more contestant — an international team took part in the case contest, bringing together students from Russia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Bolivia and France. Participants have passed a complex test to qualify for the event, managing to come to St. Petersburg amidst their busy educational activities to take an active part in all events, showing their best professional and personal qualities.
According to the jury members, now is the time when the gas sector is in need of promising young talent more than ever. The main purpose of the contest is to see whether the team strives for leadership and development. “Despite the general vector for digitalization, large companies are afraid of changes. It will not always be easy for you to pitch for your projects. You may encounter mistrust and opposition. The most important thing is to make calculations and be able to prove the feasibility ensuring profits for companies,” — was the counsel of the jury members to the young scientists.
The Dutch team came up with an idea of partnership of the IT giant Google with one of the leaders in the fuel sector, Shell. According to the members of the team, digitalization, data mining and big data will reduce the number of traffic jams, lower the level of polluting emissions and save fuel. “The most important thing is that one vehicle will be able to accommodate greater number of people. And that will result in lower fuel consumption. While using Google data will cut routes and save resources.” – representatives of the country of tulips pitched for their case.
The international team has formulated the secrets of sustainable and successful digitalization: streamlining of the workflow, complete cycling and integration, and a clear organizational infrastructure.
The German team has chosen Gazprom for its business case, pointing out that today the company has developed digital technologies, but there is a potential in the field of storage and transportation of fuel. There is an opportunity to deploy smart technologies, to enter new markets. Cooperation with virtual power plant operators gives impetus for further development. According to the participants, one of the largest operators, Next Kraftwerke, is an ideal partner for Gazprom. Provided the project launches in 2019 following the algorithm of developers, students are confident, there will be a significant reduction in costs and better competitive performance.
Panda team from China came third, with Multicultural Germans being the second. The experts found the Russian team to be the best. A student from St. Petersburg State University of Economics Maxim Mikryukov, a representative of the Russian team, said he was very pleased with the victory. “In a relatively short period of time from the beginning of September, we had to come up with a solution to a complex problem. Our case study is devoted to exploring the possibilities of intersectoral and transcontinental integration of participants in the global gas sector. Glad we did better than other teams, " – he said.
Igor Maksimtsev, rector of St. Petersburg State University of Economics, on behalf of the organizers of the Youth Day of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, thanked the company's partners (International Business Congress, Gazprom PJSC, Energy Delta Institute, Uniper, Wintershall, Gasunie, Shell, OMV, Schneider Electric and ExpoForum) for their support in preparing and conducting of the event in 2018 at the highest level.