Justification of commercial decision-making in the selection of innovations (on the example of the electric power industry)

The article is devoted to theoretical, methodological and practical issues of substantiation of innovative solutions in the commercialization of innovations in the electric power industry. The market of innovations for the electric power industry in the Russian Federation requires an increase in the number of solutions in the market, despite the fact that it has only recently begun to form. Taking into account that the life cycle of innovations in the electric power industry is longer than in other industries (one and a half years or more), there are high risks for an investor due to the fact that a substitute product for the innovative project invested into may appear in the market during this time. The main problem is concentrated in the array of selection of startups in the early stages and bringing them to the stage of "Finished Product". The topical task of the research is to develop a methodology for justifying commercial decision-making in the selection of innovations at early stages of the innovation life cycle. The methodical approach to justification of innovative projects in the electric power industry is substantiated and developed. This methodological approach is based on building of a structural and functional model of project evaluation, which includes a comprehensive criteria assessment of quality (parameters of the business model of the project, indicators of the quality management system) and quantitative (investment, income and expenditure, as well as the resulting economic parameters) indicators of the project. The content of the concept "stages of the life cycle of an innovative product" as an important component of the process of evaluating the efficiency of innovative projects is described. An algorithm for the selection of innovative projects in the electric power industry is formed, aimed at improving the quality of project selection and reducing the selection time, which, in turn, should ensure an increase in the interest of private investors in the financing of innovative developments in the electric power industry. An integral indicator of the investment attractiveness of the project is formed, which allows selecting and ranking innovative solutions in terms of their investment attractiveness. The proposed method of justification of innovative solutions allows to flexibly adapt to the requirements of an investor in the context of changing priorities in an unstable economic situation, changing market requirements, and changing trends in the market in the electric power industry.