The brother of former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, Gogla Zhvania, has expressed that Georgia can generate electricity with the gas it receives free of charge through transit via the South Caucasus Pipeline. Gogola Zhvania tried to strengthen the arguments against large HPPs and Namakhvani HPP. Andria Gvidiani, an economics expert, calls this opinion absurd, saying that today, whether they know the issue or not, talk about energy is wrong.
Gvidiani says the natural gas we get "for free" is a transit fee. He emphasizes that nothing is free - everything has a price. Gvidiani argues that if the natural gas received in exchange for transit is used to generate electricity, the country will still have natural gas to buy, and this does not change anything.
"If consumption increases by 3% annually, at the same time, an additional 110 Megawatt of thermal power plants will be needed each year to cover the deficit, for a total of 1,650 Megawatt. It should be emphasized that a 3% increase in consumption is a pessimistic calculation; we will have at least a 5% increase in the coming years; By 2035, the volume of imported gas for thermal power plants alone will reach 2.2 billion m3, valued at an average of $ 440 million. In 2020 (considering the pandemic), gas consumption in Georgia by all sectors was 2.6 billion cubic meters. In other words, gas consumption without hydropower plants in Georgia should double in the next ten years. This means, again and again, the dependence on imported resources or gas, which is disastrous for the country. Thermal power plants use the so-called social gas to generate electricity because it costs much less than the market and is $ 143. If we subsidize the production of electricity with social gas, our behavior will be wrong. All this because we do not have hydropower plants. I think this wrong practice must be reconsidered and changed," said Andria Gvidiani.
Gogola Zhvania thinks that even if the Georgian economy reaches the level of Germany, our free gas resource (which provides basic energy and energy system stability) in addition to the production of existing hydropower plants, and added wind and solar energy will fully meet our country's needs.
