Georgia’s Ministry of Economy speaks about Necessity to build new power plants

Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development says the country cannot meet the increased demand for electricity in the future without new power plants.

The ministry explains that existing Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPPs) do not have enough energy to meet increased demand in the country, adding building new HPPs will even out the imbalance between power consumption and generation, which is usually balanced with imports of electricity.

“Consumption of commercial and household demand on electricity in Georgia increases by 5% annually. Many studies confirm that the demand for electricity in Georgia will reach 21-22 billion kilowatts/ hour, which is approximately 9-10 billion kW / h more than we generate nowadays,” the ministry said.

It added that even with pessimistic calculations, in case of a demand increase of 3% in 2030 - the total requirement will increase up to 18 billion kWh, which is more than 6 billion kWh compared to the demand today.

As of March 2019, there are 93 power plants with the total installed capacity of 4207.17 MW.

Out of 93 power plants, 87 are hydropower plants with total installed capacity - 3260.07 MW, 5 are thermal power plant (927.40 MW capacity) and 1 wind power plant (installed capacity - 20.70 MW).

The ministry says one of the existing power plants - “Shuakhevi HPP” with installed capacity - 178.72 MW, has been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing repair works in the tunnel.

The Ministry of Economy explains that the total production of 86 power plant in 2018 (total installed capacity - 3994.67 MW) amounted to 12148.55 million kilowatts/h. Out of them, 80 Hydro Power Plants (total installed capacity - 3047.57 MW) generated 9949.35 million kilowatts, and 5 thermal power plants (total installed capacity - 926.40 MW) - 2114.93 million kilowatts/h. One wind power plant (installed capacity - 20.70 MW) generated 84.28 million kilowatts/hour energy.

The ministry also added the coefficient of installed capacity of the largest and powerful HPP of Georgia, “Enguri HPP” is about 40%.

Electric power consumption in Georgia is characterized by seasonality: the consumption rate reaches its peak in winter, which indicates that power in this period is primarily consumed for household and domestic use.

The demand is met with hydropower plant and thermal power plant-generated electricity and imported energy. The ratio of electricity volumes generated by hydropower and thermal power plants is 80/20.

Consequently, the key resource for Georgia to generate electricity is water. However, water flow in rivers of Georgia is season-based as well: the rivers are water-abundant in summer while the water level sharply declines in winter.

Usually, the largest energy importers are Russia and Azerbaijan. Relatively less electricity is imported from Armenia.