Wednesday, July 3 2019 09:48

ArmInfo. The private sector of Armenia plans to build a 100 MW hydroelectric power station on the Armenian-Iranian border, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said as reported by the IRNA news agency.

Yesterday, the 16th meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Mher Grigoryan and the Minister of Energy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Reza Ardakanian was held in Tehran.

"The parties agreed on the construction of a hydropower station at the Armenian-Iranian border," Ardakanian stated on the sidelines of the 16th meeting of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission. He also noted that the construction of the Armenia-Iran third power line will be completed by 2020. The Iranian minister also expressed his readiness to increase gas supplies to Armenia, within the framework of the gas-to-goods exchange project.

According to the project, a hydropower plant with a capacity of 100 MW will annually produce 750-800 million kW / h of electricity. It should be noted that however, negotiations on the construction of the Meghri hydroelectric station on the Araks river bordering with Iran have been going on since 2006, numerous documents have been signed, but there is still no real progress in this matter.

The Majlis of Iran, at its meeting on April 18 last year, approved a bill on the construction of a hydropower station on the Araks River with 162 votes "for", 5 "against" and 5 abstentions. Meghri HPP was considered the most promising joint Armenian-Iranian project. Although the parties began to work closely on the final stage of the project and announced the start of construction in November 2012, the work has not yet been started because of the limited possibilities of Tehran caused by the sanctions.

If the project is still implemented, the station will become the largest in the South Caucasus. It was originally planned that the construction amounting to $ 323 million will be financed by the Iranian investment company. Armenia will have to pay for its part of the project with electricity generated at the hydropower plant itself, and 15 years later the hydroelectric power station will be transferred to the Armenian side.

Now, according to the announcement of the Iranian minister, the private sector of Armenia will deal with the construction of hydropower plant.

It is noteworthy that according to the project the initial capacity of the hydroelectric power station should have been 140 MW. It was planned to build two stations - one on the territory of Armenia (Meghri), the second - in Iran (Karachilar). Between these two stations, a diversion tunnel was to operate. However, the Iranian parliament subsequently approved a bill on the joint construction of two hydropower plants with Azerbaijan.

The bill allows the construction of power plants near the Araks River in the border area, in the Iranian city of Marazad and the Azerbaijani city of Ordubad. The document provides for cooperation in the construction of power plants on the Khoda Afarin and Gyz Qalasy dams, on the Araks River, as well as the construction of the Ordubad power station on the Azerbaijani side and the power station in Marazad on the Iranian side. ArmInfo Agency reported that if this project is implemented, the volume of water for the Meghri hydroelectric station in Armenia may simply not be enough. Earlier, Areg Galstyan, a former adviser to the Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources, told the agency that due to environmental problems associated with a decrease in water in the Araks River, as well as increased water withdrawals from Turkey in the northern part of Armenia, this project had to be revised towards reducing its capacity. If at first it was planned to build two stations (Meghri- Armenia, Karachilar - Iran) of 140 MW each and with a total electricity generation of about 850 million kW per year, now the option with a capacity of 100 MW is being considered. In this connection, the diameter of the tunnel through which water will flow between the two hydroelectric power stations has been changed.