Azerbaijan, Russia fail to agree on electricity imports

Marlen Asgarov, the Vice-President of Azerenergy, Azerbaijan's State Electricity Company, told APA-Economics that the parties didn't agree to any points discussed but agreed to hold another meeting. RAO EES delegation will come to Baku after April 20 to discuss a new package of proposals.

Azerbaijan and Russia broke off mutual electricity sales relations since April 1 amid a dispute over the prices while they are currently exchanging electricity under a barter contract and the party returns the same amount of energy within 24 hours without any payment.

Azerbaijan said it would resume the electricity imports if Russia's RAO EES (Unified Energy Systems) agrees to sell at a favorable price.

As per the agreement inked on January 15, Azerbaijan was importing 200 to 250 megawatts of electricity (some 1bn kilowatt a year) in peak consumption hours at a price of 3.636 cents per kilowatt, close to 3.6 cents in 2006. The agreement was for the full year with the possibility of extension while the prices were for the first quarter.

Azerbaijan also raised the price of electricity being sent to Russia at nights to 1.8 cents from 1.58 per kilowatt.

Azerbaijan imported 0.7bn kilowatts of Russian electricity in 2006. The parties failed to agree on a fixed price after haggling long.

Azerbaijan also refused to buy high-priced gas from Russia in January.