Operational Village Construction Starts at Nenskra Hess

Construction works for an operational village at Nenskra Hess have been launched in Svaneti, Georgia’s western mountainous region.

The village will be built for the workers employed at the construction of the Nenskra Hydro Power Plant.

The operators’ permanent residential district will have five buildings of one, two and three-floors. A guesthouse, warehouse and office buildings will also be built on the territory.

At present, 120 people are employed in the construction of the Hess. 80 percent of them are local residents.

The main construction works of the power plant will start in spring 2017, creating 400 more jobs for locals.

The construction phase of the HPP is expected to end by 2021. However, the Nenskra HPP will start producing electricity from 2019.

Around USD 1 billion was invested in the project which is expected to play a crucial role in Georgia’s energy stability.

The implementation agreement package of the Nenskra HPP was signed in early September 2015 by Georgia’s Partnership Fund, the Georgian government, Korean company K-Water, Commercial Operator of Electro-Energetic Systems, and JSC Georgia Electric System.

The HPP is expected to annually produce 1.2 billion kilowatts of electricity per hour. The Nenskra HPP construction will be based on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) structure, according to which the investor is obliged to build the HPP, operate it for 35 years then transfer ownership of the HPP to the State.

Georgia’s environmentalists and Svaneti residents were against the building of HPPs on the territory, saying the construction would seriously damage eco-systems and locals would have to leave their households. They also stated that the construction would result in the cutting of 400 hectares of forest and would change the natural landscape of the western Georgian region which is especially attractive for tourists.

Then Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze refuted the claims, focusing on the need of the country as a whole for more energy and large HPPs.

Thea Morrison