Arshak Sadoyan: Electricity price rise imposed by Kremlin
Chairman of the National Democratic Alliance says the reasons for raising electricity tariffs are ‘unconvincing, false and fabricated.’ “They are simply cheating people. When they increased electricity prices last year, the debt they are speaking about was already paid off. Today they are telling the same story and citing the same figures, which is simply ridiculous,” says Arshak Sadoyan. He says if gas prices go down on the border, it means the Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant (TPP) is to supply energy to the population at lower prices. Last week five major power generating companies in Armenia asked the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) to revise electricity tariffs. In a bid submitted to the PSRC, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, the International Energy Corporation, the Yerevan Thermal Power Plant, the Hrazdan Energy Company (Kotayk region), Gazprom Armenia CJSC’s Hrazdan-5 station, the High Voltage Electrical Networks and the Energy Ministry’s Service Center offer new tariffs for consumers. They also submitted to the PSRC the necessary documents to justify the bid. The Electrical Networks of Armenia petitioned the Commission for a rate hike of 17 drams. Currently, the ENA charges 41.85 drams per 1 kWh of electricity during daylight hours and 31.5 drams for night hours. Electrical Networks of Armenia is said to have accumulated a debt of 24 billion drams which was caused by the unplanned halt of the nuclear power plant, dry year in 2014, which, in turn, affected the activity of hydropower plants and upset balance modes. “[Energy] prices are slowly going down in the world while in Armenia we are witnessing another picture. Armenia has turned into a colony, the country does not have its foreign-exchange reserves. The easiest way to rob people is to force them to pay more for essential commodities,” Mr Sadoyan said adding that the Armenian government was forced to increase electricity rates by order of the Kremlin.
