Electricity outages continue in the Artsakh capital of Stepanakert due to substation damage sustained during the recent war.

Acting Head of the Energy Department of Artsakh’s Ministry of Economy and Production Infrastructure Leon Gabrielyan told Hetq that increased demand on operating substations is causing the outages.

Gabrielyan said that substations in some of the country’s villages are completely off-line and that the government has provided generators to residents.

"The main problem of providing electricity is that there is damage to the network and substations and that some hydro-power plants are now under Azerbaijani control. The Sarsang plant is still operating. Each plant had its own network. We will try to solve the issue of networks soon, but the substations must be repaired,” Gabrielyan told Hetq.

Armenia had been supplying electricity to Artsakh before the war. There are two power transmission lines connecting Armenia and Artsakh with a voltage of 110 kV. These two lines and their transformer substations are in the Shahumyan and Kashatagh regions. These areas are set to be returned to Azerbaijani jurisdiction.

Gabrielyan said that discussions are underway so that they continue to operate, via a connecting corridor, to Nagoro Karabakh.

Photo credit: Saro Baghdasaryan