Delay in Armenia-Georgia power line construction directly related to  Yerevan`s "enclave policy" - professor 

ArmInfo. Avanesov. Armenia is being squeezed out of the North- South megaproject, giving way to  Azerbaijan, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor of the Russian- Armenian University, President of the Institute of Energy Security (Armenia) Vahe Davtyan in his article.

According to him, the strategic collapse in Armenia is quite clearly  expressed in the energy system, this time in the direction of  Georgia. "It recently became known that the RA government has once  again postponed the construction of the Armenia-Georgia power  transmission line and two substations serving it.  The company  participating in the competition, Siemens, did not submit a financial  proposal, citing excessive employment in other markets. The second  participant declared bankruptcy. In fact, ", we are dealing with a  situation where international business simply avoids conducting any  long-term activities in Armenia, given the existing security risks  and the high degree of unpredictability," the expert stated.

He pointed out that it is obvious that the latest delay in the  construction of the Armenia-Georgia power transmission line and the  lack of interest in it from international business are also directly  related to the "enclave policy" being implemented by Yerevan. "Given  that in the event of the transfer of enclaves, the strategic  communication architecture of Armenia will be radically changed, and,  in fact, will be under threat, the construction of a new interstate  power transmission line cannot be started without at least taking  into account new realities. International business does not exclude  that at some point it the logistics of the power line will also have  to be coordinated with Baku. The Georgia-Armenia line was supposed to  be put into operation as early as 2019 as part of the North-South  energy corridor. Moreover, the 3rd Iran-Armenia power transmission  line, which is part of the same corridor. As a result, Armenia is  being forced out of the North-South megaproject, giving way to  Azerbaijan," Davtyan stated.

On March 11, in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia,  Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of  the Republic of Armenia Hakob Vardanyan announced that the  competition for the construction of the Armenia-Georgia power  transmission line did not take place due to the lack of applications  for the construction of an electrical substation near the settlement  of Ddmashen.  According to him, two companies - Siemens and ABB,  participating in two lots in the prequalification tender, did not  submit financial proposals for the construction of both the  substation itself and the DC insert. Currently, negotiations are  underway on this project with the German bank KfW, which insists on  holding direct negotiations with specialized companies. The bank  previously considered it necessary for exclusively European companies  to participate in the tender as a condition for providing a loan.  Against the backdrop of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the  emergence of electricity shortages, European countries began to pay  more attention to the construction of renewable generation  facilities, mainly wind power plants, in which European companies  participating in the tender were also involved, which announced their  workload until 2028. The Armenian side intends to involve Chinese  companies and the American concern General Electric in the  construction, negotiations with which are not yet ongoing, since it  is necessary to make changes to the project, and instead of the  substation in Ddmashen, build a similar substation at the Hrazdan  Thermal Power Plant. Negotiations are currently underway on this  issue with KfW, the results of which will become known within the  next month.