Andria Gvidiani: Electricity Imports from Azerbaijan is Cheaper than from Russia

The price of any product or service is regulated by the market. Therefore, we should import electricity from cheaper sources, economic analyst Andria Gvidiani said.

Georgia’s electricity generation cannot fully satisfy the market demand and the country has to import 12-15% of the required energy, he said.

After 2015, Georgia started electricity imports from Azerbaijan and Turkey too, besides Russia. As a result, Georgia’s electricity imports market structure has changed entirely and now Azerbaijan ranks first in Georgia’s electricity imports. “Electricity imports from Azerbaijan will be cheaper than from Russia and this is a good opportunity for diversification of Georgia’s electricity imports market”, Gvidiani said.

The price of imported electricity is calculated through weighting daytime, night, and weekend tariffs. Based on this principle, in January 2021, the Russian electricity price (InteRao Georgia) per kw/h constituted 4.1/4.1/7.8 – that is, Cent 4.1 at night and on weekends and Cent 7.8 at daytime (14 hours a day).

As for Azerbaijani electricity (Importer L Green), the tariffs are as follows: 3.9/3.9/5.4. Comparison of these figures show that electricity imports from Azerbaijan are cheaper compared to Russia, Gvidiani pointed out.