Georgia In Talks With Inter RAO Over Joint Control Of Power Plant

The Moscow Times reported that Georgian Energy Minister Alezander Khetaguri announced Georgia is in talks to create a council with equal representation, which will manage the operation of the Enguri plant.

He said a memorandum on the start of negotiations was signed in Tbilisi at the end of December, despite a war between the two countries over breakaway South Ossetia in August.

The Enguri plant generates 4.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, accounting for 45 percent of Georgian electricity generation. Under a deal between Tbilisi and Abkhazia, which threw off Georgian rule in the early 1990s, the breakaway region gets 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours.

The plant's five generators lie on the Abkhaz side of the de facto border, but the Enguri dam is on the Georgian side.

Khetaguri said there was no prospect of transferring any shares in Enguri to Russia.

"All 100 percent of shares of Enguri were, are and will be in the hands of Georgia," he said.

Khetaguri said that if a final agreement is signed, Russia would pay Georgia for electricity consumed in Abkhazia. He said Russia was ready to buy additional electricity from the Enguri plant for its southern regions.

Some, however, are less sanguine about the motives behind the deal.

Inter RAO, which is chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's powerful deputy Igor Sechin, who curates Russian energy policy, is also one of the biggest investors in Georgia, with an electricity distribution firm for the capital Tbilisi, a 300-megawatt capacity thermal electric plant and two hydroelectric stations each with 120 megawatt capacity.

Inter RAO announced last month that it would export electricity to Turkey via Georgian territory.

Author: Ksenia Kochneva