The Messenger, Georgia
April 12 2005
One more year: Enguri dam repairs must wait
Government delays overhaul because import line from Russia remains
disabled; other breakdowns cause outages on Monday
By Christina Tashkevich
Gardabani power plant close to Tbilisi
Unnerved by the loss of the Kavkasioni import line from Russia, the
Georgian Ministry of Energy has decided to postpone major repairs to
the Enguri hydroelectric station by a year.
Enguri, the country’s largest hydroelectric station, currently has
two working units, which can produce 200 megawatts of electricity
each. A full overhaul of the stations remaining three units, which
can only take place in the spring, could increase its output
potential to 1,000 megawatts but the government has delayed the
overhaul because another major electricity source, the Kazkasioni
line, has been knocked out by landslides.
Despite this, the Ministry of Energy says parts of the Enguri station
will still be rehabilitated this year. The station will be turned off
in May for 20-30 days for the repair works. The major overhaul, now
set for spring 2006, is slated to take twice as long.
As a result of the upcoming repairs, “the energy system will be
guaranteed against frequent accidents on the Enguri units,” Deputy
Minister of Energy Aleksander Khetaguri said on Monday.
The ministry stated on Monday that there will be no electricity
crisis created by the repairs at Enguri because in May the water
levels at other hydroelectric dams are expected to be high.
Originally, the station was scheduled to stop production in April for
major repairs but because of the accident on the Kavkasioni high
voltage transmission line, the repairs were postponed.
General Director of the Georgian State Electric System Joe Corbett
said on Monday, however, that the repair work at Enguri in May will
still make a positive contributions to the system. “It is good from
the generation point of view that the gate on unit one will be
repaired,” he told The Messenger.
Because of high snowfall and rugged terrain, officials have still
been unable to access the damaged section of the line, which
transmits 500 kilovolts from Russia.
Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli recently said that restoring
Kavkasioni to permit renewed imports from Russia is of “vital
importance” before rehabilitating Enguri.
“It’s very important to us to resume imports from Russia at the level
we need while Enguri is being rehabilitated,” he said at the
beginning of April, adding that the rehabilitation of Enguri would
help prevent similar crises in the future.
With the Kavkasioni line still inoperable, Georgia’s only other major
outside source of electricity is from Armenia through another
transmission line.
“We need both Enguri and Kavkasioni back by July 1,” says Corbett,
adding that he is optimistic the repairs on both will be completed by
then.
Proving the need for other sources of light, two major domestic
production facilities went offline late Sunday leaving most of
Tbilisi, and the country, without electricity for most of Monday. On
Sunday night the third and ninth power units in Gardabani were
switched off because of unspecified emergencies. As a result the
power grid had to compensate with energy supplies from Enguri.
“The defect [in the ninth bloc] will be eliminated by April 14,” the
Telasi press office announced on Monday. According to the
government’s official energy plan, Georgia should receive 24-hour
electricity from October 2006.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress