BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 29
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Import of electricity in Georgia increased by 10.5 percent year-on-year from January through November 2019, Trend reports referring to Georgian investment company Galt & Taggart.
"Notably, for the first time, this year electricity was imported in July and August, while these months generally considered as most suitable for export," said the company.
According to Galt & Taggart, in the reporting period, electricity was imported from Azerbaijan (64 percent of total) and Russia (36 percent of total).
The main import source from January through August 2019 was Azerbaijan with a 91.1 percent of total imports. From September till December 19, the import from Azerbaijan was replaced by Russian import, with a 75 percent share in total.
This switch is explained by cheaper electricity imports price from Russia - average import price in August, when electricity was fully imported from Azerbaijan, was USc 5.2/kWh, while average import price in October, when 99 percent of electricity was imported from Russia, was USc 4.7/kWh (-8.8 percent difference).
However, later the electricity import from Russia was suspended and fully replaced by imports from Azerbaijan.
The cost of import increased by 5.4 percent year-on-year and reached $67.3 million in 11 months of 2019, from which $22 million was spent on imports from Russia. Georgian Commercial Electricity System Operator (ESCO) was the largest importer of electricity in 11 months of 2019.
Trade deficit in electricity is expected at record high in 2019. In 11 months of 2019, electricity exports reached mere 0.2 TWh (-58.6 percent year-on-year), while imports were up by 10.5 percent year-on-year to 1.4 TWh. In value terms, the electricity trade deficit widened by 29.7 percent year-on-year to $58.2 million in 11 months of 2019.
Electricity transit from Azerbaijan to Turkey through Georgia reached 116.7 GWh in 11 months of 2019. The transit amount increased 8.7 times compared to 11 months of 2018, but is far below the high transit levels of 2016 and 2017.
Balancing electricity price in Georgia was USc 4.7/kWh (-5 percent year-on-year) in 11 months of 2019. The slight decrease of the average balancing price is attributable to the access of ESCO to the Enguri’s cheap electricity and consequently decreased average price of electricity.
Some 21.1 percent of total electricity supplied to the grid was traded through the market operator (ESCO), with the rest - through bilateral contracts.
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