Hayk Harutyunyn: In 2017-2018 in Armenia, 10 minor HPP to be built

ArmInfo. In 2017 -2018, 10 small hydroelectric power stations will be built in Armenia. On April 28, Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Hayk Harutyunyan said at a meeting with journalists.

According to him, the capacity of each of these stations will not exceed 1 MW. Already by June-July this year, some of them will be put into operation. "Climatic conditions have not allowed this to happen before, now the construction works have entered the active phase," Hayk Harutyunyan stressed.

As of January 1, 2017 178 small hydropower stations operated in Armenia - five stations more than a year earlier. The installed capacity of small HPPs is 328 megawatts. In 2016 they produced 957 million kWh electricity.

To recall, currently in Armenia the process of introduction of new technical regulations for small hydro power plants is continuing. This will make possible to improve the conditions of their operation and ensure the sustainable development of small hydropower plants. However, projects in the field of small hydropower have a negative impact on the environment, as Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said at a government meeting on March 9. "Due to legislative, technical and institutional mistakes, small hydropower plants have a negative impact on the environment and long-term social and economic development," the Prime Minister said, instructing the Ecology Minister Artsvik Minasyan to develop criteria for assessing the environmental impact of construction and operation within two months HPP, review the size of environmental contributions. He also instructed to make a list of rivers, on which the construction of small hydropower stations is prohibited. The prime minister urged to study the possibility of introducing contributions for the use of water resources.

Not once the ecologists of Armenia pointed at the harm to the ecology because of HPPs.