In 15-20 days, the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia (PSRC) will officially announce the 2-2.5AMD reduction in electricity tariffs, Garegin Baghramyan, Head of the PSRC Tariff Policy Department, has told ArmInfo.
Baghramyan says that this time the PSRC itself has initiated the revision of the current electricity tariffs with due regard for 3 factors influencing the electricity price formation. "The first factor is the condition of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), including modernization and the need to compensate for the 23.4 bln AMD damage, which should be compensated for within 1 year, according to the decision taken," Baghramyan says.
The second factor is the new natural gas tariff that will come into effect on 1 July 2016, which will influence the tariffs of the thermal power plants. The third factor is the scheduled suspension of the Armenian NPP's activities for maintenance and refueling for 120 days instead of 40 days. "To understand the given factor, I should say that the need arises to replace 350 mln kWh electricity generated at the ANPP with more expensive electricity," he says. It is due to the third factor that the electricity tariffs before 1 Aug 2015 cannot be restored, he says.
Earlier it was reported that on April 29 Gazprom Armenia submitted an application to the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) for reducing the gas tariffs for the local consumers. On April 27, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said in Parliament that the tariffs of gas and electricity for the households would shortly be reduced.