Energy community secretariat’s implementation report issued on 1 September 2018 measures Georgia’s progress for the first time. The report evaluates progress of 9 contracting parties, including Georgia, towards implementation of EU legislation (acquis communautaire) in sectors related to energy and environment. A report assesses a total of 37 sub-indicators across the nine sectors. Overall score of Georgia is circa 23% (out of maximum 100%), meaning that Georgia needs to make significant changes into legislation to become in line with EU rules and regulations. According to the report, out of 9 measured sectors, Georgia is moderately advanced in energy statistics, is on early implementation stage for electricity, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy infrastructure and environment sectors, and ranks very poorly in oil, natural gas and climate sectors. We expect major changes into legislation for electricity, renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors by the end-2018, as set in protocol regarding accession of Georgia to the Energy Community charter treaty. According to implementation report, at least a year is needed for testing and adjusting the relevant implementing provisions and market instruments. Thus, Georgia is targeting to have fully functional and competitive wholesale and retail markets of electricity by 2020.
Electricity consumption increased by 3.9% y/y in September 2018, 4.9% below the planned level. Main contributors to the growth were eligible consumers and Energo-pro Georgia , while Telasi had the negative effect on growth. Consumption was below the planned level for all consumer groups. In 9M18, electricity consumption is up by 7.3% y/y.
Demand on electricity was mostly satisfied by domestic generation in September 2018. Main contributors to the growth of domestic generation (+3.5% y/y) were TPPs (49.5% y/y) and HPPs, other than Enguri/Vardnili (+9.5% y/y). Since the demand on electricity grew below the planned level, the supply by Engur/Vardnili was reduced by 12.4% y/y.
Electricity imports accounted for 14.1% of total electricity supply. Imports came from Russia (96.6% of imports) and Azerbaijan (3.4%). ESCO was the sole importer of the energy in September 2018. ESCO’s supplier (Inter-Rao ues) and import country (Russia) was selected via tender procedure announced and closed in August 2018. Average price of electricity imports to Georgia was down 12.7% y/y to USc 4.2/kWh in September 2018. The decrease in price might be the result of ESCO’s tender for supplier.
