BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 22
Trend:
Our energy potential must be aligned with the growing economic development, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during the opening of the newly-reconstructed main control, scientific, training and laboratory complex of AzerEnergy Open Joint Stock Company in Baku, Trend reports.
“I congratulate you on the commissioning of the Main Control Center of the AzerEnergy Open Joint Stock Company. I am glad that many AzerEnergy units are located in this beautiful building – the dispatcher center, the main control room, the energy institute, a training center, a laboratory, and a culture center for power engineers. I believe that the conditions here are very good. Major reconstruction was carried out in this building in a short time. It is possible to say that the building has been rebuilt and the main departments of AzerEnergy are currently located in one place, in one center. Thus, there are more favorable management opportunities now because earlier the various units and departments of AzerEnergy were located in different places, in some cases even in substation buildings, which, of course, is not very suitable for management,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state noted that this building was constructed in Soviet times.
“Some time ago it was put up for privatization and removed from the balance of AzerEnergy. When I found that out, I gave an order to immediately return it to AzerEnergy, otherwise no-one knows what entrepreneurs would have created in this building after privatizing it. The building is very large and the premises are immense – about 4 hectares. The area of the previous building was 13,000 square meters and it has now been expanded and brought up to 20,000 square meters. Some hotel, a marriage palace, a residential building or a catering facility would have been created here and energy workers would have lost this building,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
He noted that after the building was returned to power engineers, work began on major reconstruction and repairs at the end of 2018, and they have been successfully completed.
“This once again shows that the Azerbaijani state attaches great importance to the energy sector. It is no coincidence that our first steps on to the implementation of infrastructure projects were related specifically to the energy sector. Back in 2004, when the first state program on the socioeconomic development of the regions was adopted, the focus of all infrastructure projects was on the energy sector. This was natural because at that time we could not provide ourselves with electricity. We received electricity from abroad. Both the currency went abroad and the infrastructure lines available to us at the time did not enable us to provide the country with electricity,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state noted that electricity was cut off at night even in the city of Baku.
“Representatives of the younger generation may not remember this, but I remember that television broadcasts stopped at 12 am at that time, so that people would not watch TV and use a lot of energy. In other words, there was a huge deficit. As for the regions of Azerbaijan, people living there did not even know what sustainable energy supply was. In the best case, electricity was supplied for two to four hours a day, which, of course, negatively affected people's way of life and also created big problems for our economic and industrial potential. Therefore, on my instructions, great attention was paid to this issue in the first regional development program, and we immediately started to work. At that time, we began the construction of regional power plants. To some extent, the construction of power plants in Astara, Khachmaz, Sheki, Shahdag and Sangachal allowed us the opportunity to meet our needs. However, in parallel with this, we planned on the construction of large power plants, and a total of over 30 new stations have been built in our country over the past 16 years. If these stations had not been built, Azerbaijan would probably be five or 10 times more dependent on imports than in the early 2000s. Of particular importance among them are large stations. The largest station, the Janub power plant, was built in the city of Shirvan. Its generating capacity is approximately 800 megawatts. It is followed by the Sumgayit power plant with a capacity of 525 megawatts,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state pointed out that the "Shimal-2" station was put into operation recently.
“It has a capacity of about 400 megawatts. The generating capacity of the Sangachal station is 300 megawatts. The capacity of only these four stations exceeds 2,000 megawatts. In addition, hydropower plants were built in various places across our country. It should be noted that the generating capacity of hydroelectric power plants built in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is capable of meeting the needs of the entire Autonomous Republic. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which used to receive electricity from Iran and Turkey, fully provides itself today and even has export potential. In general, our country has export potential today, as we have transformed from a country importing electricity into one exporting it. Of course, these major infrastructure projects require a lot of funds. Most of these funds were provided from the budget and the rest from loans that are now being repaid. Thus, we have created a very modern energy system and a stable energy supply has long been provided in the country. In addition, work done especially in recent years has completely transformed the energy economy. High-voltage lines, lines connecting us with neighboring states were extended, new substations were built in many places, transformers were installed. As part of my numerous trips to the regions, I always enquire and ask people how things are going with energy supply. In recent years, I always hear positive feedback. This makes me very happy and testifies that AzerEnergy and AzerIshig are doing a lot of work in this direction,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state pointed out that Azerbaijan’s energy potential must be aligned with the growing economic development.
“At the same time, in the last two years, AzerEnergy has introduced a new project on restoring the generating capacities of existing stations, because most of these stations were built a long time ago. The situation at these stations could not please us. We all remember the consequences of the breakdown that occurred at the Mingachevir power plant. Our country plunged into darkness. There was a crisis at all metro stations and our country was in the dark. This breakdown occurred primarily due to negligence and irresponsibility. Therefore, the leaders of AzerEnergy were replaced and punished. New leaders were appointed. They have very specific tasks which are being fulfilled today, because energy supply is a source of life for any country. There will be nothing without it. Industry and agriculture will not develop without it, it will be impossible to provide irrigation work, public transport will not work. In general, life will be paralyzed. Therefore, our main goal was to create an independent energy system and eliminate dependence on other countries. We needed to create our energy potential in such volumes as to have sufficient generating capacities in reserve, and we have done that today. Various figures could be cited, but even the most pessimistic figures indicate that we currently have at least 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity in reserve,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state noted that the restoration of the capacities of existing stations is nearing completion.
“Among them, the Thermal Power Station in Mingachevir should be noted in the first place because this is our largest generation capacity. As a result of the breakdown at this station, our country plunged into darkness. All eight units of this station are being reconstructed. I do hope that the station will be completely reconstructed and put into operation in the next few months. The amount of recovered capacity of this station alone is about 600 megawatts. Just imagine that thanks only to the correct restoration work, we will receive 600 megawatts of additional capacity. If we take this as a standalone station, we can see that in terms of its capacity it will become the second largest station in our country after the “Janub” station,” said President Ilham Aliyev.