Saturday 5 July 2014

$40m to improve electricity access in Armenia

The World Bank has approved an additional loan worth $40 million (£23.3m) for a project that aims to improve access to electricity in Armenia.

It will cover the cost of the rehabilitation of three substations for the nation’s power transmission network.

The average age of Armenia’s power transmission assets is around 45 years and most of them have not undergone any major upgrade in the past decades, according to the Bank. Some of the substations have equipment that was commissioned in the 1930s.

Jean-Michel Happi, World Bank Country Manager for Armenia said: “The rehabilitation of the targeted substations will improve power system efficiency and reliability and bring direct benefits to all power consumers in Armenia.

“This would allow avoiding increased incidence of power supply outages as well as associated significant social and economic costs.”