EU provides EUR 10 mln grant for "Caucasus Transmission Network" Phase 1

ArmInfo. On 30 May, Ambassador Piotr Antoni Switalski, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Armenia, joined H.E. Gagik Khachatryan, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Aram Ananyan, the General Director of High Voltage Electric Networks CJSC and Mr. Lars Oermann, Director of KfW Caucasus Office, in signing a new funding agreement to improve the electricity supply network in Armenia at the Ministry of Finance.

As the press-service of the EU Delegation to Armenia informs, the EU is providing a grant of EUR 10 million to the overall project budget of EUR 105.2 million, while the German KFW Development Bank has provided EUR 85.2 million - EUR 75 million from own resources and EUR 10.2 million from the Federal Republic of Germany. The EUR 10 million co-financing is provided by the European Union Neighborhood Investment Facility through the European Investment Bank.

The project aims to establish better energy interconnections to enable energy exchange and transit between Armenia and Georgia but also within the south Caucasus region, linking Armenia (via Georgia) to the EU's European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity power grid. The project will also contribute to establish a continuous power exchange and power trade in the region. In detail, the project will connect the Armenian and Georgian power grid via a 500/400/220 kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) back-to-back converter station in Ayrum, Armenia, close to the Georgian border. The connection from the Georgian side will be via a 500 kV line from the substation Marneuli while the connection from the Armenian side will be via a 220 kV (later upgraded to 400 kV) line from Alaverdi.  Stage one, which is covered by this funding, includes the construction of the HVDC substation in Ayrum and the 500 kV/220 kV line construction on the Georgian and Armenian side. In a second stage the substation will be extended to connect the new 400 kV line to the existing thermal power plant in Hrazdan.