BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 25
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
In July, electricity generation in Georgia increased by 23 percent and amounted to 1.240 billion kWh, while consumption amounted to 1.16 billion, Trend reports with reference to the Georgian media.
According to the information, the increase in production became possible due to the repair of the country's largest Inguri hydroelectric power station (HPP) and, accordingly, an increase in its productivity. However, this did not significantly affect Georgia's energy balance, since Abkhazia takes a significant part of the energy from Inguri.
In July 2020, the HPP produced 395 million kWh of energy, and in 2021 - 60 percent more, that is, 633 million. The generation of the remaining power plants remained practically unchanged.
Currently, due to the unexpectedly large effect that the repair of the Inguri hydroelectric power station has brought, the idea of upgrading other hydroelectric power plants is popular in Georgia - according to the supporters of this approach, this will ensure an increase in a generation to a level where there will be no need to import energy. At the same time, it will be possible to refrain from building new large hydroelectric power plants, regarding which public opinion is ambiguous.
However, experts believe that other, smaller hydroelectric power plants of the Soviet period, which survived in Georgia, have a resource for generating generation, but not too large, and in any case, the rehabilitation of these facilities will not be able to cover the deficit. As a result, imports, although slightly reduced, will remain quite large.
In July, Georgia did not have to import electricity, but in the past months, the import was already 100 million kWh and exceeded the indicators of the same period in 2020 - one of the reasons for this is that the hydroelectric power station was shut down for repairs within three months.
In addition, the cost of both imports and energy produced in the country has decreased, as it was necessary to use significant capacities of thermal power plants operating on gas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, energy imports have become cheaper than heat production, with the result that from January through February 2020, TPPs generated 950 million kWh, while in the same period in 2021 - 670 million.
It is noted that most of all, electricity consumption grew in Abkhazia - by 25 percent, which is associated with uncontrolled and almost free mining of cryptocurrencies.
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