Georgia will spend nearly 50 mln on the new infrastructure for the improvement of connection with the electric networks of Armenia and Russia. Chairman of the Management Board of Georgian State Electrosystem, Sulkhan Zumburidze, told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am correspondent.

It’s planned to expand the “Marneuli” substation and increase its capacity from 220 to 500/220 kV. “The work is already underway now, and I showed the photos at the meeting,” Zumburidze said.

Two 500 kV transmission lines will go out of Marneuli. One of them will be linked to the future “Ayrum” substation of Armenia, bordering with Georgia. The project work on this line is already underway; the construction will start in 2016 and probably end in late 2017 and early 2018.

Another 100 km power transmission line of 500 kV will be built in the direction of Russia. This project is already underway.

17 mln and 25 mln euro will be allocated for the expansion of “Marneuli” substation and power transmission line to Russia respectively. The corresponding means will be provided by the German KfW bank.  “Overall, we spend nearly 50 mln euro for this energy corridor,” Zumburidze said.

After the lines are constructed both on the Armenian and Georgian sides, the transfer capability will equal 1000-1200 MW.  Direct current link in Armenia, on the border with Georgia, will play a very important role here. At the initial stage it’s planned to install 2 blocs of 350 MW there. It is planned to later increase 700 MW capacity up to 1500. But the capacity of the line itself will be 1200 MW.

Following this, the power generating companies and electric network of Georgia and Armenia will be able to discuss trade and exchange of power at a qualitatively different level.

To the question on whether Georgia thinks of exporting energy to Iran by transit via Armenia, Zumburidze said: “We can think about this too.”