The outages that can last for several hours are now a regular occurrence in Yerevan and other parts of the country, fueling growing criticism of the national electric utility. The company, Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), has essentially denied responsibility for them.
ENA’s chief executive, Karen Darbinian, said a month ago that many accidents disrupting power supply result from sloppy roadworks and a construction boom in Yerevan that has sharply increased the number of its service subscribers. He also put the blame on some Armenian power plants as well as the national power transmission network.
Pashinian met with several members of his cabinet and other officials on Wednesday to discuss the problem. The officials proposed “possible steps and solutions” to it, a government statement on the meeting said, adding that Pashinian gave them “clear instructions” on ensuring “quality electricity supply to customers.” No other details were reported.
Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission, was the first to tender his resignation late on Thursday. The two other officials, Deputy Economy Minister Narek Terian and Deputy Infrastructure Minister Hakob Vartanian, followed suit the next morning. None of them made a public statement.
Vartanian has overseen the Armenian energy sector for the last six years. He and Baghramian attended Wednesday’s meeting chaired by Pashinian.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service later on Friday, Baghramian attributed his resignation to the “problems in the energy system.” He refused to elaborate.
The resignations came amid media speculation that Pashinian’s government may pressure ENA’s owner, the Tashir Group of Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian, to fully or partly sell the company. The parliamentary group of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party stoked that speculation late last month when it organized a parliamentary hearing on the power cuts. One of its senior lawmakers grilled Baghramian about financial details of Tashir’s purchase of ENA from Russia’s RAO UES utility in 2015.
Tashir claims to have cut ENA’s massive losses by more than half, made significant capital investments in the aging power distribution network and saved some $30 million annually since 2016. According to the ENA management, this has allowed the network to keep the electricity prices in the country unchanged.