ARMENIA’S ENERGY SECTOR: REGIONAL ACTOR WITH NO ENERGY RESOURCES
Abstract
Armenia, a small country without fuel re-sources of its own and very limited alter-native energy sources, is among those CIS countries that can boast of sustainable energy supplies. More than that, its energy export is growing by the year. Its success is partly rooted in the Soviet past when the republic learned to be thrifty with the available resources, since that time the republic has mastered the latest effective energy-saving technologies.
A predominantly mountainous land-locked country with no access to the largest main pipelines and forced to live in the context of the “frozen conflict” with Azerbaijan, a large regional energy fuel producer, Armenia is seemingly doomed to be in constant need of hydrocarbon fuels. This was how Armenia’s future looked in the first half of the 1990s when fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh was still going on, when Georgia was steeped in instability, and when, most importantly, the Abkhazian stretch of the railway was blocked in August 1992 at the beginning of the conflict in this area. Nevertheless,Armenia was the first among the region’s countries to restore sustainable energy supplies (in 1996)and start exporting electric energy. This happened because the power consumption of new economy that came to life after the crisis of the 1990s is noticeably lower than that of Soviet economy. The Armenian government has outlined and is carrying out several measures to strengthen the country’s energy security:
1. consistent supply of energy resources.
2. higher efficiency of electric power generation.
3. maximum reliance on renewable energy sources.
4.thrifty energy consumption.
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After 2005, the import of natural gas increased by approximately 10% a year (see Fig. 1 below), so the percentage of the three components in the energy balance mentioned here is now even higher. However, since we do not have more recent official data, we will rely on the situation in 2005; it also clearly shows the importance of these three spheres in Armenia’s energy balance.
In the case of Iran, we should talk about net export since in the winter Iran does not buy power from Armenia but sells it to the republic.
The figures are taken from Puti effectivnoy integratsii energosistem stran Iuzhnogo Kavkaza, Baku, Erevan, Tbi-lisi, 2004.
Based on information of MPNR.5 According to MPNR of Armenia, out of 3,100 megawatts of installed capacity only 2,400 megawatts can be used.
For more detail, see: H. Khachatrian, “The Economic Status of South Caucasus Countries in 15 Years of Independ-ence: Comparative Analysis,” Armenian Trends, Q2, 2006, pp. 23-29.
Officially, President Gül came to Armenia, a country with which Turkey has no diplomatic relations, on an in-vitation from President of Armenia Serzh Sarkisian to watch the match between the national football teams of the two countries.
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