At a press conference held on 16 January 2014, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, spoke about the projects implemented in the field of energy. The PM noted: “Over the last year metering devices have been installed for an additional 55 thousand users while the gasification process reached out to a further 58 thousand consumers. Moreover, 11 villages have been electrified in 2013.” Gharibashvili also asserted that during the past nine years the public was utterly unaware of the villages left without electricity. Irakli Gharibashvili named the resolution of such issues as the priority for the current year and stated that the government sees it as its major goal to electrify each and every settlement of Georgia. Several million GEL have already been allocated for this purpose from the budget.

At the press conference the Prime Minister presented a thorough summary of the activities completed in the field of energy and listed the projects implemented by the Ministry of Energy. As reported by the PM, last year, memorandums had been signed with 26 hydro-electric power plants with the purpose of carrying out technical-economic research. In 2013 construction work was completed on the Larsi, Bakhvi and Akhmeta hydro-electric power plants. Precisely in the past year, one of the major hydro-electric projects kicked off envisaging the construction of the Ajaristskali cascade. Furthermore, in summer of 2014 the construction of the Khobi HPP 2 will be launched on the River Khobistskali in the region of Samegrelo. The HPP will have the total capacity of 40 megawatts. For the first time in Georgia, the project of wind-electric power plants is being commenced. Construction activities were initiated for the Gardabani heating station with the capacity of 230 megawatts. The station will be equipped with modern technologies and play a prominent role in ensuring the country’s energy independence and the sustainability of the energy system. Irakli Gharibashvili clarified that the volume of investments made in the field of energy in 2013 grew by 7% as compared to 2012 and in line with the data of the first three quarters of 2013 amounted to GEL 141 million. Additionally, construction

activities were completed on the new power transmission line of 500 kilowatts and the substation connecting Georgia and Turkey. Numerous projects are still ongoing with vigorous work in process.

FactCheck

took interest in the matter of gasification and electrification and set out to explore the ongoing activities in the field of energy.

Aiming to verify the aforegiven facts we contacted the Ministry of Energy. The information received from the Ministry revealed the following:

Metering

In accordance with the information provided by the Ministry of Energy, metering systems were installed for a total of 65,922 users throughout Georgia in 2013. As for the metering plan of 2013, the data is presented in the table below, broken down by regions.

As can be gathered from the table above, the actual number of beneficiaries who were engaged in the programme in 2013 exceeded the planned amount by 15,802.

Gasification

In 2013, the gasification process reached out to a total of 57,733 users throughout the whole of Georgia which means that potential consumers could acquire access to natural gas given they make the relevant payments. The indicated number is 7,668 less than the figure foreseen in the plan of 2013.

It is to be noted that the plan of 2013 projected the gasification of 65,401 consumers. As of November, the number of gasified users totalled 31,109 while considering the ongoing activities (including those to be completed in 2014) a further 54,634 consumers were to be reached in the framework of the programme.

A logical question arises that if based upon the data of the first ten months of 2013 the number of gasified consumers amounted to 31,109, then how could an almost double amount of work (57,733 reached consumers) be completed in the remaining two months of the year? The given confusion was elucidated by a spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy as follows: the pace of gasification, generally, increases over the last months of the year and the activities are characterised with greater intensity. Apart from this, the companies responsible for the gasification programme fail to produce comprehensive statistical data on the completed work on a regular monthly basis and provide final indicators to the Ministry in the form of a single report at the end of the year.

Electrification

As for the villages with no access to electricity, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Energy, 11 such villages were electrified in 2013. These are: Leteti, Utkisubani, Tchiaura, Gharta, Ksovrisi, Gostibe, Grdzelveli, Mamishlari, Imerkhevi, Tchartala and Shatili.

FactCheck discussed the matter of villages with no electricity in the previous article

as well. In the course of our research for the previous article we requested from the Ministry of Energy a complete list of villages which had been deprived of access to electricity. In line with the attained data the total number of such villages reached 35. However, the list did not mention the four villages named by the Ministry: Mamishlari, Imerkhevi, Tchartala and Shatili. Conceivably, those villages were already electrified at the moment of submitting our letter of request to the Ministry.

Conclusion

Our query about the accuracy of Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement revealed that metering systems were installed for a total of 65,922 consumers which exceeds the figure named by the Prime Minister by 15,722. The gasification programme reached out to 57,733 users (this indicator falls behind the gasification plan of 2013 by 7,668) and 11 villages previously deprived of access to electricity have been electrified.

Consequently, FactCheck concludes that Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement, “Over the last year metering devices have been installed for an additional 55 thousand users while the gasification programme reached out to a further 58 thousand consumers. Moreover, 11 villages have been electrified in 2013, ”TRUE.