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The original was posted on /r/armenia by /u/ar_david_hh on 2024-09-04 22:06:44+00:00.
Original Title: Armenia working on "vertical" aviation; e-jets \ Power grid operator pledges MAJOR modernization \ Consumer protection reforms \ U.S. spy aircraft \ Massive call center fraud \ Turtle judge \ Էս սարը իմն է \ Inflation \ Charles the legend \ Asset forfeiture \ Kidnapped \ and...
12 minutes of Armenia coverage in Transcaucasian Telegraph's Sep/4/2024 edition. (Adds 5 points to your IQ, deducts 2)
Armenia's power grid operator ՀԷՑ pledges major investments to reduce power outages and voltage drops
The Electric Networks of Armenia (average 1-star review on Google) wants you to remember how bad the network was before Tashir Group took over in 2016: "80% of the network was worn out".
ՀԷՑ: Only $200 million was invested in the power grid from the 1990s until 2015; that's not much. In comparison, in 2016-2024 we invested $680 million. //
Amid the recent wave of power cuts and loss of household equipment caused by unreliable power, the ՀԷՑ promises to invest another ֏296B ($763 million) over the next decade.
• ֏103B to connect new customers and develop distribution networks
• ֏48B to reduce power cuts
• ֏71B to reduce voltage drops
• ֏41B improve the system of commercial metering of electricity
... they are currently modernizing Yerevan's power network with $16 million equipment
• new cables between 11 substations
• reconstruct all transformer substations by replacing them with modern two-transformer substations
• 42 kilometers of new cables
• all substations located in the basements of residential condos will be moved to separate buildings
• It will get worse before it gets better. This total revamp will require more scheduled outages and more roads will need to be destroyed to dig cables. ՀԷՑ promises to coordinate the road excavations with Yerevan municipality to prevent damage to newly built roads.
... when?
The upgrades will launch this month. Some of it will be finished by the end of 2025. The operator promises "improvements in a very short time."
You should expect traffic in Yerevan caused by the crews. "We apologize for that."
... why is Yerevan's power grid struggling in the first place?
Kentron district's use of electricity has grown 9-fold since 2000. In 2016 the load was 60 MW, today it's 120 MW.
ՀԷՑ says you can thank the assholes who are building the infinite number of condos and damaging the cables during road work. A third (492) of all cable failures (1450) this year were caused by third-party construction companies during the construction of roads and houses, says ՀԷՑ.
ՀԷՑ has received 68,000 applications from new subscribers trying to connect to the grid over the last few years. That's almost one Gyumri and one Vanadzor connecting to Yerevan's power grid over the last few years.
ՀԷՑ says they are being unfairly blamed because of the actions of idiots who can't operate their local power infrastructure. For example, the Opera building shut down its backup systems a few months ago, then suffered a scandalous outage in the middle of a performance and went on to blame ՀԷՑ for their own mistake, says ՀԷՑ. A similar incident happened during a soccer match, said a ՀԷՑ. In both cases, ՀԷՑ says it sent people to help the companies to fix their infrastructure.
ՀԷՑ's job is to deliver electricity produced by others. If there is a problem at the production site, the outage is not their fault, says ՀԷՑ.
The issues skyrocketed after a recent fire incident at one of the substations powering Yerevan's central districts. ՀԷՑ was forced to re-route the electricity through alternative cables, and the load was so overwhelming that these backup cables began to fail, causing mass outages.
... ՀԷՑ about the planned revamp of the power network
ՀԷՑ says they have brought the losses down from 14% in 2015 to 6.4% in 2024, bringing $30 million in annual savings which helps to maintain the price of electricity for consumers.
ՀԷՑ says they are using bonds and borrowing money from European and Asian banks to fund the project and that the work will be done gradually to minimize the impact on the price of electricity.
The government, in turn, will require ՀԷՑ to guarantee that investing $X will reduce the outages and voltage fluctuations by Y amount.
If today ՀԷՑ has to pay a fine to residents if the outage lasts over 4 hours, starting in 2025 it will become stricter - 3 hours, and in 2028 - 2 hours.
ՀԷՑ begs for your patience. "We expect to significantly improve the situation. Every capital has gone through this phase. Every capital. It happened in Moscow in front of my eyes, when they dag the roads for years to revamp the cables. The Soviet system did not envisage the solutions that we present: the double-transformators and dual feeds. These are entirely new things that every post-Soviet republic has gone or will go through."
full video,
source,
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Armenia's asshole economists breathe a sigh of relief as the population begins to get poorer (dramatic clickbait headline)
The inflation is getting closer to the 4% target.
Jan: -0.9%
Feb: -1.7%
Mar: -1.2%
Apr: -0.7%
May: +0.3%
Jun: +0.8%
Jul: +1.4%
Aug: +1.3%
... how did prices change in August YoY?
Food +1%
Non-food -2%
Carcinogens +4%
Clothing -4%
Utilities +1%
Appliances, household activities -5%
Healthcare +2%
Transport +9%
Communications +0.4%
Recreation & culture +0.1%
Education +5%
Restaurant & hotel +3%
Miscellaneous -2%
source,
Armenia's former regimes are accused of using shell organizations to privatize and alienate numerous historical-cultural buildings and using them for unrelated purposes ("Grzo", but real?)
REPORTER: The new draft law will regulate the transfer and privatization of property with public significance. It will also prevent the use of property for unrelated purposes.
The authors of the bill estimate that 27,000 such properties in Armenia were privatized by various NGOs and organizations.
RULING MP: Various schemes have been used since 1991 to transfer the ownership of 27,000 public buildings, venues, and sports complexes to private legal entities and NGOs, which were in reality acting as shells run by ranking public officials and their families.
Just recently we learned that the Spartak sports complex, located in front the of Circus, was privatized like that. This was a property of the Republic of Armenia.
We are using documents dating back to 1947. For every single illegal transaction, we will submit a report to the prosecutor's office. There are already 2-3 such reports. //
REPORTER: The Artists' Union welcomes this initiative. They believe their building must serve exclusively for painters and cannot be alienated. //
video,
Russia still does not like Pashinyan (sad emoji)
Context: Armenia skipped another CSTO military flexercise led by Russia this week.
MOSCOW: We expect that in the interests of the future security of Armenia, and indeed the entire region, our partnership with Armenia within the CSTO will be fully restored.
At the current stage, the Armenian leadership is actually adhering to the policy of moving away from such interaction, which, from the position of the Russian side, contradicts the interests of the Armenian people. //
source,
Russia rushes to defend Azerbaijan's parliamentary selections
The West and Azerbaijani opposition parties declared the selections a sham and rigged and urged Ilham Aliyev to enact reforms and allow actual opposition figures to compete.
MOSCOW: Once again, Western actors and their affiliated international organizations have offered biased and subjective ...
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