Georgia committed to harmonize its electricity market legislation with EU Third Energy Package and liberalize it according to the accession protocol with the Energy Community. These structural changes are expected to contribute to a more efficient functioning of the Georgian electricity market and to support its development. The Georgian electricity market opening has already started. As a first step, recent amendments in the Law of Georgia on Electricity and Natural Gas mandated 110-35 kV customers with monthly average of 15 mln kWh consumption to trade on the wholesale electricity market. To support market development, it is foreseen to establish an organized spot electricity market, where market participants, namely electricity producers, traders, suppliers and electricity customers at wholesale level, will sell and procure electricity. Therefore, Georgian electricity market participants are currently in need to acquire tools, knowledge and skills to conduct modern electricity trading and risk mitigation actions, and to optimize their selling and buying decisions in both local and neighboring electricity markets.
On October 2 2018, Georgian Water and Power (GWP) opened a new hydropower dam in Bodorna (Dusheti region). The construction of the new dam started in December 2017, with the support of the Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment and Development Bank (DEG), for a total investment of 10 million GEL.
The installed capacity of the dam is 2.5 Megawatts, while the average yearly generation is expected to be 15 mln KWh. The dam will supply electricity to the water supply stations which belong to GWP.
GWP representatives have explained that the new dam is a “Green Dam”, meaning that damage to the environment has been reduced to the lowest possible level while maintain a high level of output.