ArmInfo. Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC, which is part of the Tashir Group of Companies, will put aside its interests by all legal means, especially when there is a "game without rules". Acting General Director of the company David Kazinyan stated this at a press conference on June 30, commenting on the situation around the CJSC.
According to him, immediately after the arrest of Tashir Group of Companies President Samvel Karapetyan, it became clear that the authorities intend to nationalize ESA at any cost. Realizing this development of events, Kazinyan continued, the company, together with its international partners, developed a strategy of struggle, which provides for the use of all legal methods, both within the republic and on international platforms. At the same time, he refused to disclose the content of the strategy, citing its closed nature.
The acting CEO emphasized that the draft laws submitted for the purposes of nationalization were simply poorly drafted. It is curious, as Kazinyan noted, that during the process of developing the package of documents, as well as the "nationalization" process itself, no one held any discussions with the management of "ESA".
"It is possible that they are afraid, because they know that our justifications are more than convincing. It should also be borne in mind that the Public Services Regulatory Commission has never had any questions for the company. Taking this step, the work of the state body represented by the KROS, which did not have even a hint of shortcomings in the company's work, is practically nullified," the acting CEO said. He noted that in 2015, when the Tashir Group acquired "ESA", its condition was very poor. Then, together with international partners, an investment program was developed, approved by the KROS, which is being consistently implemented.
As a result of this program, it was possible to significantly reduce the level of losses (up to 7%), which led to the fact that the tariff for end consumers has not increased for 10 years. The last time it was increased in 2016 by 5 drams. All market participants, including government agencies, were quite happy with the dynamics of the company's development. Only in 2023, the ESA investment program was completed by 93.1%. In general, the high-quality performance of all work is evidenced by the data of reputable international consulting companies that conducted financial and technical audits commissioned by the KRU.
Speaking about frequent power outages, Kazinyan noted that from now on, when reporting new power outages, specific reasons and persons responsible for them will be indicated. For example, when about 40% of Yerevan consumers were left without power on June 27, no one raised the question of whose fault it was. And this happened because of an accident at the Shahumyan 2 substation, which is on the balance sheet of the state-owned High-Voltage Power Transmission Lines CJSC, but there has been no reaction from officials to this incident for four days now.
The acting CEO noted that the mistake was that the state of Armenia's electrical networks was not widely presented from the very beginning, so that today a comparison could be made.
Immediately after the arrest of Tashir Group President Samvel Karapetyan, the issue of nationalizing Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC was included in the agenda. The first step on this path should be the discussion in the National Assembly of the draft amendments to the current laws - "On the Public Service Authority" and "On Energy". It is expected that the package will be considered at an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly, which will start on July 1.
