The fourth Twinning project on Renewable Energy Regulation in Georgia funded by EU in an amount of 1,500000 Euros has been launched at Georgian National Eenergy and Water Regulatory Commission. The project opening ceremony was organized remotely. The representatives from GNERC, Government, EU Member Country institutions, diplomatic corps, international and donors, private sector and civil society organizations participated in the event.

Key note speeches were made by Chairman of GNERC Mr. Davit Narmania and Deputy Minister of Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development Mr. Davit Tvalabeishvili, as well as by the heads of Regulatory bodies of Austria and Germany.  The ceremony was opened by Mr. Giorgi Pangani through his welcome speech. Mr. Pangani will be the Project Leader from the side of beneficiary.

The aim of this Twinning project is to support development of the renewable energies by approximating existing regulatory framework with EU standards. The project duration is 27 months and is implemented by Energy Regulatory Body of Austria (E-Control) in cooperation with German Regulator BNetzA. The direct beneficiary of the project is Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission.

The project will promote network tariff system reforms for the purpose of calculating tariffs of the Transmission and Distribution System operators, incentive schemes at the retail markets for enhancing role of prosumers. Special emphasize will be paid on the enhancement of GNERC role in relation to renewable energies and energy efficiency.

„The EU is proud to support a new Twinning project assisting the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission in improving the functioning of the energy market, based on EU experience and standards. Building up on our successful long-term cooperation, the Austrian, German and other EU experts will work with their Georgian counterparts particularly on promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency to bring cleaner and more competitive energy to Georgian consumers.” – mentioned Ms. Sigrid Brettel (Head of Cooperation Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia).

„Once again I would like to point out the importance of the EU Twinning Projects for the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission. Based on the fact that Twinning specifics envisages sharing of knowledge from the peer institution of the EU member state, the information that we gain is based not only on theory, but also each issue is examined from the practicel point of view. The importance of this instrument for GNERC is clear from the fact that this is the fourth project that GNERC is implementing. I expect that the project will be successful” – mentioned David Narmania, Chairman of GNERC.

„As a project leader I’m happy to have a team of experienced experts on board as this is a key to success of any project: Austrian regulator – E-Control - once again is our main and longstanding partner and helping us in paving our way towards EU-compliant regulatory framework together with BNetzA- German Regulatory Agency and experts from Vert – Lithuanian Energy Regulatory Council. This Twinning project concerns very advanced topics from EU regulation such as demand-side involvement, network tariff setting methodologies, as well as fostering renewable energies and energy efficiency from the regulatory perspective that are quite important for the liberalised markets” - declared Giorgi Pangani, Commissioner of GNERC and Leader of the Project.