Domestic consumption increased 7.2% y/y in January 2017, with Telasi (+10.5% y/y) and eligible consumers (+17.9% y/y) driving the growth. DSO consumption increased 5.8% y/y: consumption was up 2.7% y/y by Energo-Pro, 7.7% y/y by Kakheti Energy Distribution, and 10.5% y/y by Telasi, which has posted 20%+ annual growth rates for the past five months. Consumption of the Abkhazian region was up 6.9% y/y and accounted for 94.8% of the electricity generated by Enguri and Vardnili. Consumption by eligible consumers was up significantly (+17.9% y/y), albeit from a low base in January 2016 (-24.7% y/y). The largest eligible consumer, Georgian Manganese (78.5% of direct consumption), posted 24.9% y/y growth, also from last year’s low base (-28.3% y/y), and contributed quite significantly to energy demand growth in January 2017 (1.7 percentage points). Electricity exports were negligible, while electricity transit from Azerbaijan to Turkey amounted to 9.7gWh in January 2017.
Domestic consumption needs in January 2017 were met in roughly equal parts by hydro generation (49.7%), on the one hand, and thermal (34.0%) and imported (15.8%) electricity, on the other. The newly built wind power plant accounted for 0.6% of total electricity supply. Total electricity supply from domestic sources was down 1.3% y/y. Hydro generation decreased 10.4% y/y, mainly due to low generation of regulated power plants (-29.3% y/y), excluding Enguri and Vardnili, whose combined production was up 5.6% y/y. The drop in hydro generation was compensated by thermal power (+13.8% y/y) and imports. The amount of imported electricity almost doubled (+92.3% y/y), but from a very low base in January 2016 (-43.9% y/y), and increased only 7.8% compared to January 2015. Most of the imported electricity came from Azerbaijan (96.3%), with the rest (3.7%) imported from Russia, via the Salkhino line, in the beginning of January 2017 to supply the Abkhazian region in island mode. Guaranteed capacity fee was down 21.9% y/y to USc 0.66/kWh. Guaranteed capacity was provided by each of the five guaranteed capacity sources for most of the month. Mtkvari Energy and Gardabani CCGT operated at full power for the entire month, while Blocks 3 and 4 and GPower were mainly providing reserve for the system.
Georgia Renewable Power Company (GRPC) has significant plans in renewable energy project development. GoG has declared intent to sign an MoU for the feasibility study of wind power plants (WPPs) in Tbilisi, Martkopi, and Tkibuli. The company is also planning to develop four additional WPPs. Excluding GRPC’s wind project pipeline, there is approximately 822MW of wind projects under development MoUs.
The fourth phase of rehabilitation on Eguri HPP, which mainly includes works on the 15km tunnel through the Enguri dam to the power house, is scheduled for 2018 and will require approximately EUR 33mn. Enguri HPP halted operations for several days starting February 19th, allowing experts to walk through the tunnel. Enguri HPP, together with Vardnili HPP, satisfies approximately 35% of total annual electricity demand (22% excluding the Abkhazian region).
