Thursday, May 7 2020 15:57

ArmInfo.At this stage, there is no issue on the agenda for increasing the tariff for electricity generated at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP). This was  announced on May 7 by the Minister of Territorial Administration and  Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Suren Papikyan, answering  the question of the National Assembly lawmaker Arman Babajanyan about  a possible increase in electricity tariffs by 4 drams.

The Minister emphasized that at present, the feasibility of  attracting new financial resources is being studied to complete the  station's modernization program. In this regard, the Minister noted  that on this stage negotiations are ongoing with partners on the  subject of not extending a previous agreement.

To the question of the MP about what new financial means are  involved, Papikyan said that there are enough attracted  financialresources that are not used and can be used to re-equip ANPP  during a planned shutdown of the station. In this context, the head  of the department emphasized that according to the calculations of  the energy balance, no problems should be expected in connection with  the station shutdown.

To recall, the shutdown of the second power unit of the Armenian  Nuclear Power Plant for scheduled preventive repairs is scheduled for  May 15, 2020 and will last 65 days.

Recently, a difficult situation has developed in relations with the  Russian side on the issue of continuing financing of the program. The  attempts of the Armenian side to extend the loan have not yet been  successful.

A loan of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million were provided by  the Government of the Russian Federation to Armenia for a period of  15 years with a grace period of repayments in the first three years.   This deadline expired on December 31, 2019. At the same time, the  annual interest rate on payments is 3%.  The main objective of the  project to extend the life of the 2nd power unit of the Armenian NPP  is to restore the station's resource until 2026.

According to the results of the first stage of the program, about $  100 million remained unused. But for these unused $ 100 million the  station had to pay a fine to the Russian side. In addition, there  were claims for allegedly exceeding the limits of 20% of the loan  amount of $ 270 million, which the NPP, according to the agreement,  could use at its discretion.

All extension work was supposed to be completed before the end of  2019, but now it turns out that there is a need to extend this period  by 2 years - until the end of 2021. Obviously, when searching for  sources of financing, a certain part of the work can be postponed to  a later date, but those work that will be related to safety and  obtaining a license must be completed before April 1, 2021, when the  permit for the generation of electricity by the station expires.   First of all, it is a matter of annealing the reactor vessel,  upgrading security systems, and replacing equipment that is also  associated with security systems.

The Armenian NPP consists of two units with Soviet (Russian) VVER  reactors. The first unit was commissioned in 1976, the second in  1980. In March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake, which killed 25  thousand people, the station was stopped. In November 1995, in  connection with the most acute energy crisis, the second power unit  of the station with a capacity of 407.5 MW was activated. In March  2014, the Armenian government decided to extend the life of the  second power unit.