Artsakh strives for its energy self-sufficiency

ArmInfo. In 2018 a reservoir with a capacity of 12 million cubic meters of water will be put into operation in the Kashatagsky district of Artsakh. Artak Beglaryan, press secretary of the state minister of Artsakh, wrote about this on his Facebook page.

According to him, with the construction of the reservoir in Kashatag, a small hydroelectric power station with a total installed capacity of 5.95 MW will be involved. As the press secretary notes, this is the first case in the history of modern Armenia and Artsakh, when a hydroelectric power station will be built on the reservoir. Moreover, the reservoir basin will also be used for the development of fish farming and irrigation. The project is carried out by foreign investors who have invested tens of millions of dollars in it.

Earlier, the state minister of Artsakh Araik Harutyunyan reported that in the near future several projects will be implemented on the Sarsang-Matagiz site, within the framework of which several reservoirs will be built in order to develop fish farming, irrigation and hydropower. The total cost of this program is $ 100 million, most of which will be invested by foreign investors.

Artak Beglaryan also informed that in the year of 2018 6 small hydropower plants with total installed capacity of 28.5 MW and average production of 161.7 million kW / h of electric power are planned to be put into operation in Artsakh. At present, 16 small hydropower plants operate in the country, which during the year of 2017 produced 327.8 million kW / h of electricity. At the same time, the total amount of electricity consumption last year in Artsakh was 351.1 million kW / h. It is planned to bring its own power generation up to 800 million kWh in several years. "And this despite the fact that 10 years ago these volumes did not exceed 90 million kW / h," stressed the press secretary of the state minister of Artsakh.