The Fourth Scientific Seminar was held in the Center for Energy Systems of Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. Professor Nikolay Ivanovich Voropai gave a lecture titled “Cascading Outages and Emergency Control System of Power Grids – Russian Experience”. Nikolai Voropai – Director of L.A. Melentiev Energy Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in Irkutsk, Head of a Department at Irkutsk State Technical University, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 
In his speech Nikolai Voropai focused his attention on key steps of cascading outage development, reviewed in detail emergency operation control services and their response time, hierarchical structure of emergency control system in Russia. Control system of power grids built in Russia is one of the most reliable in the world. Russia had no cascading outages in the period from 1975 to 2005. In 1975 there was a serious disconnection in the Kazakh SSR, the next accident occurred in Moscow in 2005. Professor Voropai examined in detail the reasons and consequences of these accidents. New conditions of electricity market functioning in Russia put forward new requirements for emergency control systems. L.A. Melentiev Energy Systems Institute is actively working towards the improvement of control systems and emergency control systems.