The Messenger
Friday, October 22, 2004, #201 (0725)
Electricity imports set for October
By Christina Tashkevich
Georgia will be able to receive imported electricity from Armenia already
this October.
The negotiations on the imports of energy from Armenia are currently
underway, and according to the Minister of Energy Nika Gilauri, these
imports are necessary in order to avoid an energy crisis in the country.
Talking to reporters on Thursday, he added that imports should have been
started in November but the process was sped up because of the latest
sabotage on the high-voltage line Kartli-2.
“We want to make this winter much better for the population as far as
electricity supplies go,” said the minister. He adds there should not be any
problem of supplying Tbilisi with 24-hour light if not for some force majeur
situation.
On October 9 the Kartli-2 transmission line was knocked out of operation
because of an explosion that officials blame on saboteurs. To transfer
electricity from western Georgia to the east, officials have been forced to
use 200-kilovolt low transmission lines instead of the 500-kilovolt
Kartli-2.
Meanwhile the repairs on the Kartli-2 are underway. According to Shota
Maisuradze, the General Director of SakRusEnergo who is in charge of the
repairs, the line will be operational again in one week. “One tower of the
line is almost repaired, the other is half repaired,” he told journalists on
Thursday.
Gilauri is sure that the energy system needs full rehabilitation. “There has
not been a serious rehabilitation of the system which was working in force
majeur state,” he said adding there has already been four cases of sabotage
on the high voltage line in the last two months.
Currently the energy sector plans to provide Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi and
Zugdidi with better energy supply. “We can offer only eight-hour supply for
other regions of Georgia,” says Gilauri.
Meanwhile the government reports the sabotage group which attacked the
Kartli-2 line was eliminated by Georgian special forces. “We will secure the
system so that there is no other sabotage acts in Georgia,” President
Mikheil Saakashvili declared at a Wednesday briefing after announcing that
the group was captured.
Without mentioning where, when or how, President Saakashvili explained to
journalists that “trespassers” were destroyed by Georgian law-enforcers.
“The members of this gang planned to make the same type of sabotage along
other sections of the power line but our law-enforcers foiled their plans,”
Saakashvili said.
According to him, a special forces unit was sent to the whereabouts of
saboteurs, but “the gang members refused to surrender and opened fire.” As a
result of the gunfight, the group was forced to surrender.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress