Giorgi Margebadze, head of the Association of Small and Medium HPPs, states that the current energy crisis will continue in Europe in March as well. The Georgian government plans to launch the energy exchange by that time. As he told Business Course, the government should either start the energy exchange and then fixing the shortcomings or delay the launch of electricity trading for several years, so that the companies have more preparation period.
Earlier the government cited the situation in the region as the reason for delaying the launch of the exchange, because of which it saw risks in trusting the free market of electricity trade.
"A lot of questions arise in the background of the energy crisis in the world. Of course, this contains risks, although the situation in terms of energy crisis will not be improved in these seven months either. This is a long-term process that started in Europe. Today, if there are hostilities in Ukraine, Europe has an energy war with Russia. This crisis will last a long time. Investors waiting for the market to open want to see a price. These delays mean that these new investments are put on hold. These new investors also stop for seven months and wait for what will happen after this time", Margebadze states.
Initially, the full operation of the energy exchange in Georgia was supposed to start on July 1, 2021. It was first postponed until January 1, 2022, and then until March 1, although it did not take effect on March 1 either. Finally, the start of the reform was planned in September 2022, however, according to the government's resolution of August 29, the deadline for the full implementation of the exchange was extended to March 31.
