Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is facing an energy crisis. From January 9, the high-voltage power line from Armenia to Artsakh is not operating in the Aghavno-Berdzor section. The only supplier of electricity is the local hydropower plants, but rainfall has decreased and the problem has worsened, warns the chief engineer of the Artsakh HPP company.
Armen Gasparyan (Chief Engineer of Artsakh HPP Company) - The cost of water to produce one kilowatt of electricity has doubled. You can imagine that going down increases the water consumption.
The biggest indicator of the impending energy crisis is the unprecedented lowering of the water level of Sarsang reservoir in its history. Now, there is 100 million cubic meters of water in the reservoir with a capacity of 600 million cubic meters, 70 percent of which is the dead volume and cannot be used.
Armen Gasparyan - We are rapidly descending to an unacceptable level, after which we cannot safely operate our Sarsang HPP. In other words, we have to prepare for the worst scenario if nothing happens (he means the precipitation - ed.). I mean, there can be power outages for long periods of time.
From March 21, the Azerbaijani side again blocked the gas pipeline from Armenia to Artsakh. The power company switched to a 4-hour daily power outages schedule during the winter. Now besides the gas, the people of Artsakh do not have electricity 3 times a day for 1 hour.
Tigran Gabrielyan (Deputy General Director of Artsakhenergo) - We switched to a 3-hour schedule because the weather has warmed up, the load has naturally eased, the total consumption has decreased. Besides, a number of factories, large enterprises, and large consumers are not working because of the blockade, the works have been stopped, naturally, parallel to that, the consumption has fallen to some extent.
If in winter high voltage and frequent power outages caused accidents, now accidents are relatively few, Tigran Gabrielyan says.
Tigran Gabrielyan - Recently, due to the gas supply, a number of residents switched to electric heaters and to heat water, that is, they use Ariston and other similar systems, that is why we have accidents in some places, because a large amount of power is switched on simultaneously. However, they are separate accidents, not like the previous ones which were about an entire building or district.
Due to false environmental reasons, on December 12, 2022, the Azerbaijani side closed the Lachin road connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the world. The International Court of Justice has a decision to open it, which Azerbaijan has not yet fulfilled.
