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Armenia's Energy Is Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

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  • Armenia's Energy Is Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

    ARMENIA'S ENERGY IS BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
    by Samvel Sarksyan

    ARMINFO
    Tuesday, September 4, 17:09

    The energy branch of Armenia seems to develop according to the scenario
    of the theater of the absurd, senselessness of which is that the
    authorities of the country ignore interests of their own people and
    pour water at the mill of the Russian gas business and local oligarchs.

    In 2004 Armenia's National Assembly adopted a law "On energy supply
    and renewable power generation". Three years later, the government
    adopted the "National programme of power supply and renewable
    power generation", and in another three years - the programme of
    the government's actions directed at implementation of the national
    programme. It turns out that six years were necessary to give birth
    to the legislative basis for implementation of good intentions. That
    is to say, instead of creation of favorable conditions for increasing
    capacity for generation of hydro, wind, sun and geo-thermal energy,
    the resources of which are rather big in Armenia, they have been
    generating it on the basis of the imported gas at the thermal stations,
    and of nuclear fuel - at Armenian nuclear power plant.

    It means that our energy dependence on friendly Russia and Iran has
    been growing. There is also another negative factor - the growth of
    the gas releases at thermal plants, which results in the growth of
    payments for the air pollution, according to the Aarhus Convention.

    The data of Armenian National Statistics Service for the first half
    of 2012 versus the first half of 2011 are evidence of the fact that
    generation of power with a help of the "blue fuel" - has grown. Gross
    output of energy grew by 9,1% up to more than 4,058 bln kWt/h. The
    power generation at thermal plants grew by 44,2% up to 1,471 bln kWt/h,
    whereas Armenian Nuclear Power Plant increased power generation only
    by 3,6% up to 1,412 bln kWt/h, and hydro power plants decreased power
    generation by 12% to 1,175 bln kWt/h. In the "International Energy
    Corporation" (the owner is Russian "RusHydro") they assured Arminfo
    correspondent that reduction of rainfall and rivers flow affects the
    power generation at hydro power plants of Armenia. But in that case,
    how can one explain the fact that the level of the Lake Sevan, the
    key water inlet, has not changed and the government allowed water
    pass from the lake for agriculture needs in rather big amounts.

    The main loss because of poor generation of power is that it is
    compensated by generation of expensive power using gas. According
    to the data of Public Services Regulatory commission (PSRC), the
    average power tariff for the first half of 2012 generated at one part
    of Razdan Power Plant that belongs to "Electric networks of Armenia",
    was 29,23 drams ($0,071), whereas the generation volume was 325,52 mln
    kWt/h. As for the 5th bloc of the same plant, that works according to
    the steam and gas cycle and belongs to "ArmRusgasprom" - 25,98 drams,
    whereas the generation volume was 232,53 mln kWt/h. As for the new
    energy block of the Yerevan power plant which also works according
    to the steam and gas cycle, the average tariff was 6,06 drams and
    the energy generation volume - 180,39 53 mln kWt/h. As for the energy
    generation at hydro power plants of the energy system of Armenia, it
    is cheaper. At Sevan-Razdan Cascade the average tariff for the first
    half of 2012 was 0,92 drams (generation volume 331,44 mln kWt/h);
    at Vorotan hydro power plant - 4,63 drams (generation volume 451,35
    mln kWt/h). The average energy tariff generated at all small hydro
    power plants of Armenia amounted just to 19,52 drams.

    Nobody says that thermal energy generation should not be developed
    in Armenia, especially that it is being developed according to the
    machinery when Armenia returns energy to Iran instead of the gas
    delivered from this country. But one must not forget that development
    of small hydro energy is more useful for the country taking into
    account the fact that Russian gas has been always growing and
    threatening to reach the level of the world market tariffs. This may
    result in the power tariff raising for the Armenian consumers which
    are not so much credit worthy.

    To recall, when the programme on upgrading of the 5th energy block
    of Razdan Power Plant (investments of the Russian Gasprom) and of
    the new energy block of the Yerevan thermal plant (Japanese credit
    taken by the government) started, functionaries of Armenia's Energy
    Ministry hoped that surplus of the power generated in Armenia will
    be delivered to the neighboring Turkey and Georgia. But all was in
    vain, as the political relations between Armenia and Turkey did not
    normalize. As for Georgia, it preferred to import cheap energy from
    Azerbaijan. As a result, the aggregate capacity of the power plants
    of Armenia reached 3,2 thsd megawatt, whereas the country uses only
    1,2 thsd megawatt even in the cold summer season. Against such a
    background, one can consider at least doubtful the plans on purchase
    of the Turkmen energy through Iran. This issue will be discussed at
    the forth inter-governmental Turkmen-Armenian commission on economic
    cooperation, on 5 September of the current year in Yerevan. A question
    arises: what are the volumes of the Turkmen energy to be delivered to
    Armenia? And how it will be used in Armenia? Will it be cheaper than
    the energy generated in Armenia? If yes, will it affect the tariff
    and reduce it? There is an idea that it will replace power generation
    at hydro power plants of Armenia. It turns out that it is better to
    organize centralized flow of energy from abroad and control it just the
    same way as they do it in many monopolist spheres of import. As for
    development of renewable energy in the context of further increasing
    of capacity of small hydro power plant, unfortunately, we have to
    forget about it, as there are many people which want to build the
    generating capacities based on the renewable sources of energy,
    especially that donors grant big credits for that. We mean specific
    investments, new technologies and job places.

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