Davit Narmania: Nothing Catastrophic May Happen if Energy Exchange is Postponed Further

“Under the current regulations and the Government-approved market rules, the 1st of January 2022 is the deadline when the Energy Exchange must be launched.

Consequently, if the Government thinks that this deadline should be rescheduled again, another government resolution should be passed”, Davit Narmania, chairman of the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNRC) said. IPress has interviewed Davit Narmania:

-Do you expect the Energy Exchange inauguration date to be postponed again?

-It is not upon GNERC to regulate this issue. The exchange was to start on July 1, 2021. However, some major consumers had not fully arranged the registration points, i.e. the so-called smart counters were not installed everywhere, while this is one of the key preconditions to ensure hourly registration of consumer energy and the automated transition of this information to Alpha Center in the state electro system. According to the current information, this issue should be tackled by the end of 2021. This signifies that the only technical problems will be resolved and all companies will arrange registration points within 6 months. On the other hand, Georgian State Elecstrosystem (GSE) is finishing the so-called profiling model software that is designed for calculating consumer energy profiles. A certain amount of circulating capital is required to launch the Exchange and these financial resources should be allocated in the state budget. This is the current reality. Though, nothing catastrophic may happen if this process is postponed again.

-Don’t you think you are hasty to launch the Energy Exchange?

-We are not hasty. The European Energy Union and European partners that provide mentoring over current energy projects in Georgia assure that the Exchange should be launched timely because the exchange inauguration is one of the important components for opening the market. Therefore, from the very beginning, it was determined to launch the Exchange on July 1. Indeed, they receive full information on the reformation process. All necessary information is constantly sent. They knew very well that the reformation process was implemented efficiently. They also knew that the system was not fully ready. Therefore, the inauguration was postponed. Therefore, if the Government decides to revise the timeframes again, our partners should be fully notified again and we should explain why we need additional time to efficiently launch this important stage of reforms. A huge job has been fulfilled so far. Namely, the Exchange has bought the due platform from European partners and this platform has been adapted to the Georgian reality. Training and test trades were held to accustom the market players to the trading rules and procedures. They are energy sellers, on the one hand, and major consumers, on the other hand, and they will buy energy on this Exchange. Thus, this process goes on.