Electricity exports increase
By Leman Mammadova
Azerbaijan continues to work on strengthening its power system to meet the growing demand both in local and foreign scale as well as to ensure the reliability of the power system.
The country exported 1.05 billion kWh of electricity worth $45.1 million in January-April 2019, according to the State Customs Committee.
In the same period of last year, the country exported 987.9 million kWh of electricity at the cost of $38.4 million.
Azerenergy is the main exporter of electric energy in Azerbaijan. There are over 30 power plants on the balance of Azerenergy. The total power generation capacity of these stations exceeds 6,000 MW, which allows generating about 24 billion kWh of electricity annually.
Recently, energy operators of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia held a working meeting in Tbilisi.
The technical details of the power systems of the three countries were reviewed during the meeting at the head office of the Georgian State Electrosystem JSC. The representatives of Azerenergy and the Unified Energy System of Russia took part in the meeting.
The parties reviewed the mechanisms for regulating power flows and agreed to discuss the details related to the creation of the United Electric Power Ring, which will significantly improve the stability of the electrical systems of the three countries and increase the possibilities of electricity export and import.
It is noteworthy that in 2018, Azerbaijan's electricity exports increased by 165.2 million kWh in comparison with 2017 (1.28 billion kWh), reaching almost 1.5 billion kWh. As many as 1.23 billion kWh of this amount was exported to Georgia, 121.5 million kWh to Russia, 80.3 million kWh to Iran, and 13.45 million kWh to Turkey.
The cost of electricity exported from Azerbaijan amounted to about $66 million, and the value of exports increased by $16 million compared to 2017.
Total electricity production in Azerbaijan amounted to 25.2 billion kWh in 2018.
Azerbaijani government expects the power generation in 2019 at 25.5 billion kWh. This figure is expected to go up by 2 percent annually to 27.1 billion kWh in 2022. The capacity of the country's generating system is 7,172.6 megawatts, which allows generating about 24 billion kWh of electricity annually.
In recent years, Azerbaijan has turned from an electricity importing country into a country exporting electricity. Azerbaijan, which has been exporting electricity to neighboring countries for a long time, has already begun exporting energy to European countries.
Since early May 2019, Azerenergy has started supplying electricity to Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary through Georgia and Turkey. In the coming months, the company also plans to export electricity to Austria and Italy.
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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888
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