TendersInfo
April 22, 2010 Thursday
Armenia Inaugurates New Power Plant
The state-of-the-art plant was built in Yerevan in place of an
obsolete facility with a $247 million loan provided by the Japanese
government through the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC).
The long-term loan was disbursed to the Armenian government on
concessional terms in 2007.
With a capacity of 242 megawatts, its gas-powered turbine will be able
to generate approximately one-quarter of Armenia s current electricity
output. Officials said it will also be twice as efficient as the plant
s decommissioned unit and four other Soviet-era facilities of its kind
functioning in the central Armenian town of Hrazdan.
According to Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisian,
this is the main reason why the domestic price of electricity will not
increase this year despite the recent 17 percent rise in the cost of
gas imported from Russia. Thermal power plants currently meet roughly
one-third of Armenia s electricity needs.
It was possible to keep electricity tariffs unchanged in 2010 because
of the fact that this new plant will go into service on April 21,
Movsisian told journalists during the opening ceremony that was also
attended by President Serzh Sarkisian.
Movsisian described the new plant as the first major energy facility
built in the country since independence. He said it will not only
enable Armenia to economize on natural gas but also cut carbon
emissions.
Armenia s energy sector will expand further after the ongoing
construction of the Hrazdan plant s new and even more powerful Fifth
Unit. Russia s Gazprom monopoly acquired the incomplete facility in
2006 as part of a complex agreement with the Yerevan government that
raised its controlling stake in the Armenian gas distribution network
to a commanding 80 percent. The Russian giant pledged to spend more
than $200 million on finishing its protracted construction by 2011.
The new Yerevan and Hrazdan facilities will pave the way for
large-scale Armenian imports of natural gas from neighboring Iran
through a pipeline constructed in late 2008. Armenia began receiving
modest amounts of Iranian gas in May last year. With Russian gas
essentially meeting its domestic needs, it is expected that the bulk
of that gas will be converted into electricity and exported to the
Islamic Republic.
Movsisian revealed on Wednesday that his government would like to
construct yet another thermal power plant in the coming years. I hope
that we will be able to build another plant of this kind which will
boost the capacity of our energy system and have a greater effect on
our economy, he said.
Armenia has had an electricity surplus ever since overcoming a severe
energy crisis in the early and mid-1990s by reopening its Soviet-built
nuclear power station at Metsamor nearly 15 years ago.
Ltd.