The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 1 February 2006.
The Meeting started with a minute of silence in honour of the memory of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. "Almost a year has passed since Mr. Zurab was not with us and I'd like to ask you to honour his memory with a minute of silence..."
Asked by the Prime Minister to do so, Minister of Energy Nika Gilauri discussed the current situation in the Georgian energy sector.
Minister of Energy Nika Gilauri:
At about 8-9 p.m. yesterday evening, we started importing electricity from Armenia. Alaverdi PTL was switched on that has enabled us to lift up limits on electricity supply. At this point, the energy sector is operating without any limitation but due to a large volume of snow and bad weather, a number of accidents on power transmission lines occurred in Imereti, particularly in Kutaisi. Most of these accidents have been liquidated. Despite that, approximately 20% of Kutaisi is left without electricity. The repairs are being done and are expected to be completed by the end of the day. The repairs on all the other energy facilities will be finished by tomorrow morning latest.
As for the gas supply, about 80-85% of Tbilisi will be gasified by the end of the day and by tomorrow evening the entire city will be provided with gas supply. Accordingly, the city gasification will be completed by the end of the day.
Unfortunately, it should be mentioned that until Imereti and Kavkasioni PTLs are restored, the power grid cannot be fully stable. We can provide a 24-hour power supply but even a small accident may present problems. The repairs are being done at a record fast rate. We hope to restore Imereti and Kavkasioni PTLs somewhere on 3-4 February.
We'll start providing power supply to industrial facilities today but there will be certain limits in this area, too, until the said lines are restored.
Press Center of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia