OFFICIAL: BLACKOUT IN ARMENIA NOT CAUSED BY DISRUPTION OF POWER SUPPLY FROM IRAN
Fars News Agency, Iran
Nov 5 2013
TEHRAN (FNA)- Managing-Director of Iran’s Electricity Network
Management Company Mirfattah Fattah Qarahbaq underlined that the
massive blackout in Armenia was not the result of a disconnection
from Iran’s power grid.
“The power outage in Armenia last week was related to the internal
problems of the country’s power network and seemed to have been
caused by the activation of frequency protection relays which actually
shouldn’t have been activated,” Fattah Qarahbaq told FNA on Tuesday.
Stressing that the Iranian and Armenian power networks are connected,
he said, “At present, Iran and Armenia’s power grids are synchronous
and we have 150mw energy exchange with that country based on our
agreement (which was inked between the two countries long ago).”
Armenia suffered its apparently worst power outage in nearly two
decades at the weekend as a result of what the authorities in Yerevan
claimed a brief disruption in electricity supplies from neighboring
Iran.
The entire Armenian capital and some other parts of the country
were abruptly left without electricity for more than two hours on
Saturday morning. The emergency deactivated traffic lights and the
city’s underground transport system were brought to a halt, leaving
hundreds of commuters stranded in its tunnels. They all were evacuated
by the national Rescue Service before power supplies were restored.
The Armenian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources claimed that the
blackout occurred due to “technical problems” in imports of electricity
from Iran. “Our energy system was automatically disconnected from
the Iranian system,” the ministry spokeswoman, Lusine Harutyunyan,
told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Yet, Harutiunian said that Energy Minister Armen Movsisian set up an
ad hoc commission that will investigate the precise causes of the
disruption. Movsisian told reporters on Monday that the commission
will also discuss how to prevent such emergencies in the future.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
