Armenian Energy Ministry: Iran-Armenia third power transmission line must be put into operation till the end of 2018

ArmInfo. The construction of the third Iran-Armenia power transmission line will be finished till the end of 2018, Deputy Energy Minister of Armenia Areg Galstyan stated today answering to ArmInfo's question.

According to him currently the construction work is conducted at full speed. He also informed that all the problems with the financing of the project have been solved. The construction of the third transmission line with a capacity of 400KW will take one year and a half since the beginning of construction.  The construction of the third line will be conducted at the funds of "Sedarat" Iranian Development Bank, which will provide 83 mln EUR for the project.  Iranian Sanir Company is the contractor of the project.  The Armenian government provided tax and custom benefits to the company for the project implementation. The Iranian side will provide the funds to Armenia as a loan, which will be paid off by supplying electricity.  The Armenian government in its turn will provide 27.5 mln EUR as co-financing.  The total cost of the project is around 107 mln EUR.  With the help of this power transmission line Iran intends to enter energy market of Georgia and Russia through Armenia-Georgia power transmission line, which is being constructed.  The agreement on construction of the third line was signed in 2004 but because of sanctions and lack of financing the construction was postponed. The construction of power transmission line with a 279km length will allow increasing the electricity flows from current 350MW to 1200 MW.