PSRC warns about electricity tariff rise, fails to name exact figure

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tariffs for electricity will rise in Armenia, but it is difficult to say now to what extent, head of Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) Robert Nazaryan told reporters on Tuesday, June 2, according to ARKA.

On May 8, Electric Networks of Armenia filed an application with the PSRC asking to raise the energy tariff for the population by 17.08 drams. In particular, according to the application, daytime (7 am-23 pm) and nighttime (23 pm-7am) tariffs should be raised to 58.93 drams and 48.93 drams per kilowatt-hour respectively.

“There are a couple of components influencing the price, which makes a certain price increase obvious. But to what extent, I am not ready to answer today,” the head of PSRC said.

Among the factors that will lead to the increase are the drastic change in dram to dollar rate and the dry year, Nazaryan said.

The government will find means to support socially challenged groups after the price rise, the regulator said.

Earlier, Armenia’s minister of energy and natural resources Yervand Zakharyan supported the bid of the Electric Networks of Armenia and said that the company’s huge debt of 37.6 billion drams resulted from the unplanned halt of the nuclear power plant, dry year in 2014, affecting the work of hydropower plants and breaches of balance modes, for which the company is not legally responsible.

Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC fully held by Russian INTER RAO EES is distributing electric power in Armenia and exporting it to Georgia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.