Hydroelectricity in Armenia

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Hydropower generates about 30% of Armenia's electricity but its share varies a lot from year to year.^[1][2]

Hydro power plants provide 70 percent of Armenia's renewable energy. Major HPP capacities are installed within Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade and Vorotan Cascade.^[3] The hydropower potential of Armenia is reported to be 21.8 billion kWh.

As of the 1 January 2018, electricity was generated by 184 small HPPs, with total installed capacity of 353 MW. In 2017 the generation of the electricity from small HPPs was around 862 million kW*h, which is about 11% of the total generated electricity in Armenia (7762 million kW*h). As of 1 January 2018, and according to the provided licenses, 36 additional SHPPs are under construction, with about total projected 69 MW capacity and 250 million kW*h electricity annual supply.^[4][5]

The economically justified hydropower potential of Armenia is around 3.600 GWh/year.^{[citation needed]}From this amount, 1.500 GWh/year (or about 42% of economically justified hydropower potential) has been developed already.^{[6][obsolete source]}Six of the plants are in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.^[7]

Armenia has nine hydroelectric power plants which together accounted for one third of its domestic electricity generation. The plants are grouped along two cascades: the Sevan–Hrazdan Cascade and the Vorotan Cascade.^[6] The following table lists the details of each cascade:^[8][6]

Though both Iran and Armenia have long discussed opening a 140 MW, joint hydro power plant on the Artak's River – Meghri HPP (also known as the Araks Hydro Power Plant) – by mid-2021, the project had not begun construction. Coupled with the 60 MW Loriberd HPP, these projects would add a cumulative generation of 1,012 million kWh/year.^[11] The Meghri Hydro Power Plant is a joint Armenian-Iranian project slated to be constructed on the Araks River near Armenia's southern border town of Meghri.^[12]

In 2010, the energy ministers of Armenia and Iran signed a document on the long-anticipated construction of two hydropower stations on the Arax River. The agreement stipulates that the $323 million project will be fundamentally financed and operated by Iran, 793 million kWh of energy transported to Iran annually, and the stations transferred to Armenia's ownership 15 years later. Construction was expected to commence in 2011 and take five years to complete.^[13] By 2021, construction had not begun.

According to a USAID sponsored report, 313 small hydroelectric power plants (small HPPs) with an installed capacity of 243.366 MW and an average yearly electricity production of 737.38 GWh are installed in the country.^[11]

Some plants were lost in the 2nd Nagorno-Karabakh war leading to electricity shortages after cables connecting the enclave were damaged.^[7]