Armenia will start modernizing later this year an electricity substation and a high-voltage transmission line stretching to the Armenian-Turkish border with a $21 million loan provided by Germany.
The two facilities are located in the northwestern Shirak province bordering Turkey and are a major component of the local power distribution network.
The transmission line underwent minor repairs in 2009 during fence-mending Turkish-Armenian negotiations that raised the prospect of Armenian electricity exports to Turkey. But the subsequent collapse of the rapprochement all but ruled out such possibility.
“The substation remains prepared to supply electricity to Turkey,” its director, Gagik Avetisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Thursday. “It will be even more prepared after the reconstruction.”
Preparations for the project began shortly after the state-owned German bank KfW allocated the loan late last year. The project will be implemented by French companies chosen recently as a result of an international tender.
Avetisian said the modernization process will get underway this autumn and take more than two years. “After the reconstruction, we will be able to exploit the substation in a safe and reliable way for another 50 years,” said.