Russian energy holdings lose interest in Armenian hydropower plants

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian energy holdings, actively investing in Transcaucasia in the 2000’s are losing interest in local assets, the regulators being unready to make allowances over the national currency devaluation in the energy tariffs.

RusHydro , one of Russia's largest power generating companies, will consider the possibility of selling the Sevan-Hrazdan cascade of hydroelectric power stations in Armenia, RusHydro deputy CEO George Rizhinashvili told journalists, ARKA said, citing finanz.ru.

He stated that in 2-3 months RusHydro will assess the value of the asset and form a portfolio of proposals from potential buyers. "We have the Sevan-Hrazdan cascade, which we plan to sell in the near future because of its being a non-core asset," Rizhinashvili said.

"We have not yet made an internal assessment; now we are analyzing the financial model, however, the decision to sell it is fairly stable," he said.

The Sevan-Hrazdan cascade includes seven hydropower stations located on the Hrazdan River in Armenia with a total installed capacity of 561 MW. The average annual output of the cascade stations is 501 million kWh, which is about 10% of the total power generation in the country. RusHydro acquired this asset in March 2011 from Inter RAO Holding B.V.