Will Night Tariffs for Electricity Remain in Force?

The newspaper 'Hayastani Hanrapetutyun' writes: Recently, there has been much discussion about the liberalization of Armenia's electricity market. What does this imply? Will this liberalization, as is usually the case, lead to increased tariffs, and why are we resorting to this measure? To clarify these and other questions, we turned to Hakob Vardanyan, the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure for Energy.

Particularly, this is one of the issues included in our country's energy system development strategy until 2040, which is currently under discussion. The Deputy Minister first emphasized that only 10 percent of the market will be liberalized in the initial phase to see what risks may arise, and if it turns out to be unfavorable, 'they will return back'. As for the issue of tariffs, the state will definitely apply relevant mechanisms to prevent any agreements from taking place.

Will night tariffs remain in force during the liberalization? According to Hakob Vardanyan's clarification, questions related to increasing the efficiency of the tariff policy will be considered during the first phase of market reforms. Specifically, the expediency of continuing the use of night and daytime tariffs, the necessity of establishing monthly fixed service fees, and other related matters will be assessed. However, improving the mechanisms for protecting vulnerable consumers will always remain a focus for the government.

For more details, see today's issue of the newspaper.