BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 8
By Tamilla Mammadova - Trend:
Georgia's Ministry of Economy expects the decrease in electricity consumption caused by COVID-19 to continue until September 2020 in Georgia, Trend reports citing Georgian Galt & Taggart investment company.
The electricity consumption was down by 7.8 percent year-on-year in March 2020 due to partial lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The company forecasts negative growth of electricity consumption to continue until September 2020, resulting in 0.8 percent drop in annual electricity consumption to 12.7 TWh in 2020.
"In order to mitigate the negative impact of coronavirus, the government will cover population’s utility bills for three months. This support will affect those subscribers who consume less than 200 kWh of electricity and 200 cubic meters of natural gas in a month," said Galt & Taggart.
As the company noted, Shuakhevi hydropower plant (HPP) resumed operations in February 2020. The 178-megawatt station was first launched in 2017, but had to undergo repairs due to technical problems with the tunnel. In March 2020, its output was 58.9 GWh, which is 5.4 percent of the total supply this month and 8.3 percent of hydropower.
According to concept design of electricity market, power trading on day-ahead, intraday, bilateral and balancing markets should start by July 2021.
Before then, the trading will continue in form of bilateral agreements, as it is today. Power Exchange Company, established in December 2019 as joint venture of Electricity System Commercial Operator (ESCO) and Georgian State Electrosystem (GSE), is working with Nord Pool Consulting on creation of trading platforms and supporting operational rules. It is expected to launch the platforms first in July 2020, and after a year of testing, full-scale operations will begin.
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