AYFB President: Energy Exchange Management Should Publicize Planned Works

This statement was released by Giorgi Kapanadze, head of the Association of Young Financiers and Businessmen (AYFB).

This is the only instrument for interesting figures in the society to carry out monitoring over the current developments in order to ensure efficient inauguration of Energy Exchange no later than at the end of Spring, if not on January 1, 2022. It is surprising that the Energy Exchange management makes no comments on what specific plans they have to meet the new deadline for the platform inauguration. We believe that the exchange management should submit the specific plan of works to make forecasts on how realistic the statement the Exchange director-general made in June 2021 that the Energy Exchange would launch operation on January 1, 2021, Giorgi Kapanadze said.

We remind you that, as part of the energy market liberalization project, the Energy Exchange was to launch operation on July 1, 2020, in an hourly trading regime. At the end of May 2020, nongovernmental organizations publicly expressed doubts that the exchange could not be launched within the announced timeframes and the Economy Ministry spread the statement that the Exchange inauguration would be postponed for January 1, 2022. Part of the non-governmental organizations, namely the Association of Young Financiers and Businessmen (AYFB) expects that the new timeframes will be violated again because the majority of potential market players and domestic generation facilities cannot be ready in terms of technical aspects. AYFB thinks that it is not reasonable to launch the Exchange in the winter period when the domestic generation is minimized and the electricity imports reach their peak because in similar circumstances unhealthy manipulation risks extremely grow.