Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Electricity will be supplied from Azerbaijan to Greece through the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Power Bridge project, CEO of Turkish state electricity selling company Tetas, Hadji Duran Gokkaya, told the Baku-based Trend news agency on Wednesday.

Gokkaya said that Turkey is in talks with Bulgaria, Greece's neighbor, on sale of electricity to it under the project.

He said reconstruction work on transmission infrastructure is сomplete in Turkey. However, a delay in the work in Georgia may affect the project's timeline.

"It was originally planned to start exporting electricity in 2013, but the delay in Georgia may affect the timing of the start of exports," he said.

Gokkaya noted that the project seeks to ensure the supply of 1,200 megawatts of electric power to Turkey, of which 600 megawatts will account for Azerbaijan. In total, the project envisages annual exports of up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity from Turkey to Europe.

Also, electricity exports from Azerbaijan to Turkey are planned within the framework of the Power Bridge project by connecting the energy systems of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Reconstruction of the transmission lines to the Azerbaijan-Georgia border is necessary to ensure successful exports. Georgia must also complete construction work in its territory.

Azerbaijani state-owned energy producer Azerenergy issued a statement last Wednesday saying the reconstruction of a number of electric power facilities has been finalized in Azerbaijan as part of the Power Bridge project.

In particular, full renovation of 150 kilometers of the Mukhranis-Veli 500-kilovolt overhead transmission lines, the installation of the third 400-megawatt autotransformer of the 500-kilovolt Absheron substation and reconstruction of the substation's 300-kilovolt distribution facility has been completed.

"Azerbaijan has capacity to export electricity to Europe," Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Abbasov said at an international conference held in Baku last year.

"Today Azerbaijan fully meets its energy needs and is ready to export it. We have a project to export electricity to Turkey through Georgia and we are interested in expanding it to Europe," Abbasov said.

According to him, the current export potential of Azerbaijan is 8-10 billion KWt/hr of electricity.

Azerbaijan exported 473 million KWt/hrs of electricity from January to November 2012 compared to 737.74 million KWt/hrs during the same period of 2011, Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee said in a report in late December.