Democratic Party of Armenia has disseminated a statement wherein it urge the citizens to express their protest against the rising electric power tariff and switch off the electric power at their homes for an hour at 10:00pm on 5 July.
To recall, on 1 June the Public Services Regulatory Commission took a decision to increase the electricity tariff for the Armenian population by 10% starting from 1 August 2014. In accordance with the Regulator's decision, the day-time tariff for the population will grow to 41.85 AMD per 1 KW/h versus the current 38 AMD (up 10.1%) and the night- time tariff will rise to 31.85 AMD versus the current 28 AMD (up 13.7%). Meanwhile, according to data of ArmInfo's analytical division, the problems of the Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC (ENA) originated after two TPPs were put into exploitation: the 5th power unit of the Hrazdan TPP and the new power unit of the Yerevan TPP. Gazprom Company invested nearly $300 million in modernization of the first plant. The second TPP was modernized on the $200 million loan from the Japanese Development Agency. Meanwhile, ENA is reluctant to repay those funds buying more expensive electric power from TPP.