Yeghegis Small-Scale Hydro Project

N/A

The purpose of the project is to install and operate a second turbine of 3.75 MW (3,750 KW) at the small scale hydropower plant on the upper flow of the Yeghegis river. This turbine will only operate during a wet season ofapproximately 2,5 months (1824hours) and will produce about 7296 MWh per year.

The planned total installed capacity of the entire facility, including both turbines, is 9.95 MW, allowing the production of an estimated 32.3 million KWh (32,300 MWh) per year. The electricity produced will be supplied to the national grid of Armenia.

A first turbine at Yeghegis has already been installed and is operational. This first turbine will not be part of this CDM project. The second turbine was included in the original business plan, but without the CDM it was not possible to finance that turbine. This is mainly because this turbine will only operate during a wet season of approximately two and a half months and thus produces much less MWh than the first turbine. The first turbine produces about 25,000 MWh.

The project will leave a minimum water flow of 0.29 m3/sec. in order to ensure the environmental stability of the river and the river bed vegetation. This is in line with the legal obligation stipulated by the Ministry of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia in the environmental impact assessment.

In addition, a fish pass will also be installed at the earliest possible opportunity, weather permitting in order to prevent any potential impacts of the project on the local fish species.

The project will contribute to sustainable development of Armenia via:

• Diversification of electricity generation sources and decrease of dependence on imported natural gas;
• Provision of a minimum ecological water flow of 0.29m3/sec to ensure environmental stability of the river;
• Utilization of hydro and other renewable energy sources;
• Increase of employment opportunities to local people both during construction and operation of the project in the area where the project is located;
• Attraction of funds for the local municipality via the land-lease contracts, land taxes and also property tax on the equipment that is installed.

The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending 1,1 million Euros over the next 5 years towards the financing of the project. However, the EBRD does not claim any compensation in the form of Certified Emission Reductions for the repayment of the loan.

After approval of the project activity by the Host country CDM DNA, the project document was submitted to the CDM Executive Board for registration. The project was registered by the CDM EB on December 1, 2007.

Installation of the second generating unit was completed in Spring 2007.