It started. But no one knows so far what had started. It’s known that Worley Parsons, a leading global player in energy and resources markets, has won a tender for construction of Armenia’s new power unit. According to the official version Armenia preferred Worley Parsons to another global consortium, as the latter did not provide any warranties on its price bid. People have been speaking about the construction of the power plant for a long time. But it was a real surprise for the society to witness practical steps. There were only tiny rumors before. But it was unbelievable that this project would start in 2009. First of all the state budget of 2009 wasn’t anticipating such a project. But our fellow government has made a decision about this in 2008 (December 25). The government has permitted the bid of the power plant unit package. The government approved the composition of the inter-governmental tender. The minister of energy of RA was assigned to officially announce a bid within 15 days. “The minister of finances was assigned to allot funds from the reserve funds of the 2009 state budget.” The inter-governmental commission includes the ministers of energy, finance and economy and the chairman of the regulator commission of public services. Afterwards the agency of purchases announced the tender. And then the government probably remembered the law on energy. They remembered that and submitted a law draft on January 10 to the National Assembly. The bill related to the construction of the power unit. The current law on energy defines that the nuclear energy is a state monopoly. Several months ago the government suggested the NA to revise this requirement. That was perhaps the last case when our MPs revolted against the government. They made the government to recall the legal draft. There were rumors that after the revision of the requirement the power plant would be given to Russia in the framework of the “property against debt” project. The law wasn’t adopted and the power plant was given to the Russians just for temporary management. The construction of the new power unit should also be regulated by a law. On March 16 the law draft offered by the government was included in the NA agenda. The MPs, who don’t shine with diligence, adopted this law only on April 4 by the first reading. But the government rushed to constructing the power unit without the full adoption of the law. In all the governmental documents only the construction of one power unit is included but the NA draft law speaks about two units. It’s not yet clear how many units will be constructed. Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Energy previously said the winner of the bid is to make a conceptual design of the power unit and supervise construction. Specialists say the Metsamor-based Armenian NPP can operate till 2016. The NPP started operations in 1976. Only the second power unit of the plant with a Russian nuclear reactor works. The unit covers about 50% of Armenia’s energy demand. The Russian media is really nervous about the emergence of foreign companies in the power market of Armenia. And in fact many of the questions are not clear at the moment. If the Russians succeeded in projecting and designing a new power station our energy system would become totally Russian. According to the draft adopted by the first reading the MPs are supposed to periodically publicize the public of the status of the construction of the power unit. But the key question remained unanswered – what funds are used for the construction of the power and unit and where the sources come from. The reserve funds of the state budget are only 15 billion AMD. It’s not enough even for designing the project.
