Armenia Power Storage

Energy system reliability in Armenia is now considered adequate, as investments in electricity and gas infrastructure, increased residential access to gas and operational improvements since the mid-1990s have led to significant declines in outages and losses.

Armenia's energy security has greatly improved since the gas and power supply crisis in the early to mid-1990s. During the crisis, energy sector management was dysfunctional, losses were extremely high, and the collection rate was below 50%. This resulted in acute supply shortages, with households receiving only a few hours of power per day.

Up to 1.2 Mt of light oil products and 0.9 Mt of fuel oil can be stored, but most depots do not comply with modern standards and many need repairs. Meanwhile, upgrades to the Abovyan underground gas storage facility in 2012 doubled its capacity to 135 mcm. Armenia is not under any international obligation to hold oil stocks.

Armenia is a party to the Non‑Proliferation Treaty, has an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In 2011, the IAEA inspected its nuclear power station for operational safety, deeming the plant acceptable.

Installed generation capacity is 4 147.2 MW, but available capacity is lower (2 878.7 MW) due to the age and condition of plants: approximately 50% of Armenia's capacity is more than 40 years old. The Yerevan thermal power plant was retired in 2010, and the government plans to retire the oldest units of the Hrazdan plant in 2023.

Hydropower (including small hydro) from the Hrazdan and Vorotan rivers and from other dams is a stable component of Armenia's electricity system and provides daily load regulation with installed capacity of 1 345.6 MW. Construction of the Megri HPP (110 MW) has been postponed with no exact commissioning date.