The Messenger, Georgia
Oct 22 2004
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.