BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Construction of Khudoni Hydro Power Plant (HPP) in Georgia has been suspended indefinitely, Trend reports referring to Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.
The ministry will have to announce a tender for the construction of HPP, because it decided to terminate the contract for the construction of the Khudoni Hydro Power Plant with British-Indian Trans Electrica Ltd., said the report
The ministry of economy will have to pay 118,000 euros to the international law firm Hogan Lovells for legal services upon termination of the contract.
The first memorandum between Trans Electrica Ltd. and the Georgian government on the construction of the Khudoni Hydro Power Plant with a capacity of 702 MW was signed in 2011.
Under the contract, Trans Electrica Ltd. was expected to launch the HPP construction works by 28 April 2012. However, Trans Electrica Ltd., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, has failed to comply with its contractual commitments and hasn’t launched construction.
According to the ministry, the reason for that is not only the company's financial problems, but also the local population and the environmentalists’ protests.
The project provides for the construction of a 702 MW Hydro-power plant, with 200-meter high concrete arch dam on the Enguri River in Khaishi village of Zemo (Upper) Svaneti in Western Georgia.
It will be the second largest HPP in Georgia (after Enguri HPP with a total capacity of 1,300 MW) and it will generate 1.5 billion kw/h electric power annually. According to early estimates, Khudoni HPP will cover 20 percent of Georgia’s annual power consumption.
The estimated cost of Khudoni HPP amounts to $1 billion.
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