BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 26
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The adoption of the Law on Energy and Water Supply by Georgia is truly an important event in the energy sector reform process of Georgia, said Janez Kopac Director of Energy Community Secretariat, Trend reports via Georgian media.
As he said, it sets a clear path towards the development of the energy sector in line with European principles and outlines the specific requirements for Georgia to develop a competitive energy market.
"A number of secondary legal acts which should put market principles envisaged under the law into practice, are yet to be adopted. In the gas sector, the most important next steps are the approval of the natural gas market concept design by the Government in October, followed by the adoption of natural gas market rules next year," Kopac said.
As he noted, in parallel, the gas incumbent Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation (GOGC) and distribution companies have to unbundle.
"An unbundling plan should be presented to the Economy Ministry by the end of 2020, according to the law, and the entire unbundling and certification procedure shall be finalized by the end of 2021. In the electricity sector reforms are faster. Market liberalization should be completed by the mid next year and unbundling still this year," Kopac said.
He hopes that Georgian stakeholders will stick to this deadline, having in mind that according to the Accession Protocol of Georgia to the Energy Community Treaty the process should be completed already by the end of 2020.
"The ultimate aim of this process is clearly separating the network business from competitive activities, thus ensuring free and transparent third-party access to the network. A separate chain of suppliers competing with other emerging and existing competitors will eventually improve the quality of service and positively impact price dynamics,"Kopac added.
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