ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
Monday
Armenian Prime Minister and Rosatom head discussed the implementation
of the program to extend the life of the second power unit of Armenian
NPP
Yerevan June 12
Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on June 12, met the general
director of the state corporation "Rosatom" Alexei Likhachev.
According to the Government press service, during the meeting Karen
Karapetyan stressed the importance of cooperation between Armenia and
Russia in the energy sphere. He expressed satisfaction with the level
of bilateral cooperation.
The sides discussed the process of implementing the program for the
extension of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP. Alexei
Likhachev noted that the work on the block is carried out in
accordance with the established schedule. He added that the program to
extend the life of the power unit of the Armenian nuclear power plant
is one of the most important programs in the energy cooperation
between the two states. Then Alexey Likhachev presented to the head of
the Armenian Government the intermediate results of the work done,
referring to the forthcoming works.
TsNIITMASH, an industrial enterprise of the Rosatom. As for the
instrumental survey, the main task of this exercise is to calculate
and confirm the residual life of the equipment using non-destructive
testing methods. In simple words, it is necessary to check the
possibility of further operation of NPP equipment. As you know, there
is a lot of equipment on the NPPA, so the instrumental survey is
distributed for several years, without compromising the safety and
operation of the NPPA. Last year, we started this process; this year
the volume of the surveyed equipment increased by 50% compared to last
year (150 types of equipment) at the request of the supervisory
authority. We hope to finish the instrumental survey process next year
and in 2019. Transfer calculations and conclusions to the supervisory
authority - the State Committee for Nuclear Safety Regulation. We hope
to finish on time, but everything will depend on the results of the
survey and the decision of the Gosatomnadzor. On 30 Sept 2015, Tashir
Group headed by Russian businessman of Armenian origin Samvel
Karapetyan and Inter RAO signed an agreement of purchase and sale of
electric power assets of the Russian energy holding in Armenia - ENA
CJSC and Hrazdan TPP. The reason of the sale was the public discontent
about the ungrounded growth in electricity prices by approximately
16.7% (6.93 AMD per 1 kWh). The Public Services Regulatory
Commission's (PSRC) decision to raise the tariff sparked protests and
the Armenian authorities agreed to audit both the expediency of PSRC's
decision to raise the tariff and the activities of the Electric
Networks. In addition, the authorities and Tashir Group took a
decision to subsidize on a parity basis the raised tariff for the
households and SMEs until the audit is completed. Since August 1,
2015, the daytime tariff for households (from 7 am till 11 pm) has
been 48.78 AMD per 1kWh, while the nighttime tariff has been 38.78 AMD
per 1 kWh.
