Armenia’s Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources says that the level of technical equipment used at the country’s small hydro plants is quite low, leading to inefficient use of water resources for generating electricity.

Hayk Badalyan, who heads the ministry’s Sustainable Energy and Energy Saving Department, says that a new project designed to raise technical standards was approved by the government in late 2016.

Badalyan says that new technical equipment standards are being discussed with Eurasian Economic Union member states.

The official says that unicensed cheap equipment now being used is imported from Russia, China and the European Union.