GREDA Executive Director Maia Melikidze has welcomed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s decision to remove intermediary companies from Georgia’s electricity imports, calling it “the right decision.” Kobakhidze said electricity would no longer be imported through intermediaries and that eliminating them could save the state several million lari annually, particularly in imports from Azerbaijan.
Melikidze said intermediaries had created an additional bureaucratic chain involving time and commissions, making an already “socially sensitive” issue more complicated. She believes direct interstate relations can make electricity imports more efficient than relying on intermediary companies.
“There was a period when there were no intermediaries. They emerged when the country faced major challenges. Then they were legitimately and properly removed, and later they appeared again,” Melikidze told TV program Analitics. “I am deeply convinced that the current decision will be final and that intermediaries will no longer be a challenge for the sector.”
According to GNERC energy balance data, Georgia imported 164 million kWh of electricity from Azerbaijan in January-August 2026, compared with 417 million kWh in 2025, 186 million kWh in 2024 and 3.3 million kWh in 2023. ESCO data identifies Tbilisi Investment Group as an Azerbaijani intermediary, Lux Energy as a Russian intermediary and Trading Solutions as an Armenian intermediary.
