Investigating Georgia’s unexplored hydro potential

To stimulate utilization of renewable energy and the required investment, the Ministry of Energy of Georgia endorsed the State programme ‘Renewable Energy 2008’. However, several projects have been developed in an uncoordinated manner. A less than optimal arrangement of production capacity has resulted from this process; in particular, an imbalance toward run-of-river schemes to the detriment of storage schemes has developed over time. A concern of the Georgian Energy Development Fund (GEDF) is the completeness of all studies made so far. To address this concern, GEDF initiated master plan studies for the basins of all major rivers of Georgia: the Rioni, Enguri, Mtkvari, Guria and Adjara. This paper presents the findings, results and conclusions of the masterplan studies, as well as the methodology used.