The energy ministers of Armenia, Georgia and Iran, as well as the CEO of Russian electricity company leading, met yesterday in Yerevan to study the possibility of increasing significantly energy trade between their countries.
The Armenian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said the four nations will be able to establish a common energy market after the construction of two new power lines connecting Armenia with Georgia and Iran.
“We are here today to ensure that we can prepare by 2017-2018 technical and legal framework for further synchronize our power grids,” said the Minister of Energy of Armenia, Yervand Zakharian, told reporters after interviews.
The Energy Minister, with his Iranian counterpart, Hamid Chitchian and Georgia, Kakha Kaladze and with the director of transmission and distribution network of Russian national electricity Oleg Budargin, signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
Kaladze stressed the importance of the document when he met Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan later in the day. A statement from the Armenian government quoted the Georgian Minister as stating that this will create “favorable conditions” for regional energy cooperation.
“The deepening and expansion of the interaction between the energy systems of the four countries will allow the creation of a regional energy market,” assured the Armenian Ministry of Energy in a statement. “The parties expressed their willingness to coordinate their efforts to advance the program.”
In this regard, the Declaration stressed the importance of the ongoing construction of a third and far more powerful high-voltage transmission line between Armenia and Iran. For Zakharian, installation, that will cost $ 120 million, will quadruple the Armenian electricity exports to the Islamic Republic.
The ministry also stressed that Armenia and Georgia will soon start building a similar line that will make their much interconnected power grids. The $ 115 million project, whose completion is also expected in 2018, is financed by the German KfW development bank, managed by the state and the European Union.
“The construction of these lines will enable the four countries to exploit their energy systems of joint and parallel and increase the volume of trade in electricity during emergencies”, welcomed Zakharian.
The planned multilateral arrangement is clearly facilitated by the gradual lifting of international sanctions against Iran. It could also be related to the recent decision of the Georgian Government to consider the possibility of purchasing natural gas to Russia and Iran. Kaladze said in October that Georgia, which currently buys most of its gas to Azerbaijan, may soon import Iranian gas via Armenia or Azerbaijan.
Claire © armenews.com