Armenia`s authorities lack political will to increase electric energy  exports to Georgia 

ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities do not have sufficient political will to increase the  volume of electricity sales to Georgia. Political scientist Vahe  Davtyan is of a similar opinion.

The expert noted that Armenia is once again recording a negative  balance in electricity trade with Georgia.

He recalled that in 2024, Georgia exported 137.43 million kWh of  electricity to Armenia, while imports from Armenia amounted to only  72.70 million kWh, which is 6% of the structure of Georgian imports.

According to him, for comparison: electricity imports from Azerbaijan  amounted to 185.97 million kWh, or 15% of the total structure.  Davtyan also drew attention to the fact that the lion's share of  Georgia's electricity imports still belongs to Russia: 79% in 2024  (or 968.84 kWh).

"Electricity consumption in Georgia is showing steady growth. By  2030, the country may face a serious deficit, as demand for  electricity will increase by about 73% and reach 22 billion kWh.

In other words, in parallel with the increase in domestic capacity,  Georgia will increase electricity imports, which, in turn, dictates  Armenia to step up the construction of a new power transmission line  with Georgia as part of the North-South electricity corridor.

So far, the project implementation process leaves much to be desired:  for the sixth year now, Yerevan has been unable to hold the necessary  competition to select a contractor. The reason is the lack of  political will.  And geopolitical, spatial thinking. As in other  issues," Davtyan summed up.

We recall that on March 11, 2024, in the National Assembly of the  Republic of Armenia, the now former Deputy Minister of Territorial  Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia Hakob  Vardanyan reported that the tender 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 pre-qualification  tender, did not submit financial proposals for the construction of  either the substation itself or the DC link. According to available  data, the German bank KfW, which insists on holding direct  negotiations with specialized companies, after holding negotiations  with the Armenian side, agreed to change the conditions and the  possibility of attracting contractors from other countries. 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 the participating in the tender, European  companies have 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  currently underway, since it is necessary to make changes to the  project, and instead of a substation in Ddmashen, build a similar  substation at the Hrazdan TPP. Negotiations are currently underway  with KfW on this issue, the results of which will be known in the  near future.

The North-South energy corridor construction project, designed to  unite the electric power systems of Iran, Armenia, Georgia and  Russia, has encountered a number of problems. Initially, the projects  for the construction of 400/500 kilovolt Iran-Armenia and  Armenia-Georgia power lines were planned to be completed by the end  of 2019. Meanwhile, as of today, the work on the Iran-Armenia power  line has been completed by 35-40%, and the construction of the  Armenia-Georgia power line has not yet begun.  According to the  project, it is planned to build a 400 kV Iran-Armenia power line and  a 500 kV Armenia- Georgia power line. For these purposes, it is  planned to build 2 electrical substations "Ayrum" and "Ddmashen" on  the border of Georgia. The preliminary cost of the Armenia-Georgia  power line construction program, according to FICHTNER, is 326.9  million euros, 10% of which should be part of Georgia's contribution.  For these purposes, three loan agreements were signed in 2014-2015.  In particular, 168 million euros were allocated as a loan by the  German bank KfW, another 10 million euros were provided by the  European Investment Bank. It is expected to receive another 10  million euros as a grant from the European Commission. As for the  Iran-Armenia high-voltage power transmission line, the financing of  this project is carried out by the Iranian side, the total cost of  the program is $107 million.