There will be no light for 6-8 hours a day- Abkhazia is preparing for a difficult winter
There will be no light in Abkhazia for 8 hours a day
Abkhazia is preparing for a difficult winter amid severe energy crisis. Now the light is being turned off for two hours a day according to the “fan principle”, mainly at night. However, soon there will be no light for 6-8 hours a day.
This forecast was made back in the summer of 2021 by the former head of Chernomorenergo Mikhail Logua. The main supplies of light to Abkhazia come from the Ingur hydroelectric power station, which is located in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict and is jointly managed by the Georgian and Abkhaz sides. Abkhazia receives 40% of the generation, in order to meet this volume with the current consumption of electricity, the cutoffs will need to be increased to 6-8 hours, Logua said.
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The amount of electricity consumed by Abkhazia in comparison with the pre-crisis 2019 has increased, according to official data, by 25%.
The main reason for the growth in consumption is illegal cryptocurrency mining, in the fight against which the authorities, by their own admission, clearly cannot cope,
Considering the natural additional load on the power grid in winter, a rather long daily power outage cannot be avoided, says the current head of Chernomorenergo Tengiz Girjinba.
Another reason for which the time of rolling blackouts will be increased is the decrease in the water level in the Jvari reservoir of the Ingur HPP, which is characteristic of winter.
So far, the power engineers have not decided how many hours a day they will turn off the light every day in winter. Moreover, power engineers do not exclude that periodically the light will be turned off for more hours.
“We will disconnect where there will be congestion on the feeders and we will do this in order to preserve the technology, otherwise we will be left without electricity at all”.
Expert commentary
Inal Khashig, JAMnews editor in Abkhazia / editor of the Chegemskaya Pravda newspaper
“The government has never dealt with the mining problem. Now, the refusal to actively oppose it may result in a serious political crisis with far-reaching consequences.
The authorities understand the full danger of the situation, but they still hope to get electricity flow from Russia before the cold weather, free of charge or at a very preferential price.
However, in the current one it looks extremely fantastic. Moscow knows the reason for the energy shortage in Abkhazia and will hardly agree to just help her.
Electricity can be provided to Abkhazia only subject to the privatization of the energy sector and access to these resources by Russian companies. There is an alternative – the energy will be provided at the market price.
But in fact, the second option will still lead to the first, because Abkhazia is not able to pay at the market price”.
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