The consequences of COVID-19 on tourism and in the industrial and service sectors have been discussed broadly recently. However, little has been said about the current and future implications on the Georgian power sector. The worldwide pandemic has already had and is still expected to have, quite significant implications on both the demand and supply sides of the electricity market. Although at this stage, we cannot estimate the exact scale of the effects, it is possible to represent a general theoretical framework of the existing and potential impacts.

In March 2020, Georgian power plants generated 867 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents an 11% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (in March 2019, the total generation was 974 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease of 64% in thermal power generation more than offsetting the increase of 30% in hydro and 7% in wind power generation.

Looking at the consumption and generation trends of the past year, it is evident that Georgia is an electricity importing country during most months, with consumption almost always exceeding domestic generation. The only exceptions over the last 12 months were May and June, when the generation-consumption gap briefly became positive, reverting to the negative again in July. This is quite a dramatic change from how the country’s generation-consumption gap looked back in 2010 when the country exported almost seven times more electricity (1524.3 GWh) than it imported (222.1 GWh) and thermal power generation was reduced to 682.8 GWh.

In February 2020, Georgian power plants generated 851 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 9% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (in February 2019, the total generation was 939 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from a decrease of 13% in hydro, 9% in wind, and 5% in thermal power generation.

In January 2020, Georgian power plants generated 1,031 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 2% increase in total generation, compared to the previous year (in January 2019, the total generation was 1,011 mln. kWh). The increase in generation on a yearly basis comes from the increase of 37% in thermal and 36% in wind power generation, more than offsetting the decrease in hydro power generation (-22%).