Tuesday, September 6 2016 11:43

ArmInfo. Under the Memorandum of Understanding among Armenia, Georgia, Iran and Russia, aimed at enhancing the management of power exchange, security and reliability of the power grids of the countries, the Coordination Commission will hold a meeting in Batumi on September 14-16. 

Armenia, Russia, Georgia and Iran keep exerting efforts towards promoting and expanding the regional electric power market. Armenian Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Areg Galstyan will visit Georgia to attend the Coordination Commission's meeting in Batumi. The relevant decision of Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan is posted on e-gov.am.

To note, the Memorandum of Understanding among Armenia, Georgia, Iran and Russia was signed following the meeting in Yerevan in December 2015. The Memorandum envisages a number of events aimed at creation of a North-South energy corridor.  

It should be recalled that Fichtner GmbH & Co.  KG, the Armenia-Georgian Power Line project consultant, will prepare a tender package to choose the general contractor of Armenia-Georgia power transmission line project by the end of 2016, Deputy Energy Minister of Armenia Areg Galstyan told ArmInfo as early as in April. According to him, it is planned to implement the project in three phases, the sources of financing of the first two phases are already known.  The first two phases are estimated at 188.2mln EUR. To that end, three credit agreements were signed in 2014- 2015. In particular, German KfW Bank issued a 168mln EUR loan for the given purpose, European Investment Bank issued a 10mln EUR loan, and the European Commission is expected to provide a 10mln EUR grant.  The first two phases will be implemented simultaneously starting in 2017 and completing by the end of 2018. The project aims to link the power grids of Armenia and Georgia and to promote mutually beneficial regional cooperation within the framework of the Iran-Armenia- Georgia-Russia energy corridor. In addition, the project will create prerequisites for synchronous operation of the electric power networks of the CIS member states.  According to FICHTNER, the cost of the project is preliminarily estimated at 326.9 mln EUR, with Georgia to contribute 10% of it.