Georgia has been ordered to pay Russian Energy Company USD 81 million
The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) ordered Georgia to pay USD 80.5 million in compensation to Inter Rao, the Russian energy trading company. The Georgian side has appealed the decision as unfounded, the Justice Ministry stated.
In June 2017, Inter Rao, and its Georgian subsidiary, Telasi, initiated an arbitration complaint against Georgia. They claimed the government violated the 2013 Memorandum by refusing to enable tariff changes when Georgia's national currency dropped dramatically against the US dollar from 2013 to 2016.
The Justice Ministry stated that the state "still believes that tariffs were established appropriately in 2014," prompting them to file an unfounded appeal with the Stockholm Court.
The 2013 Memorandum, according to plaintiffs, established the consumer tariff, weighted average purchase rate, and distribution tariff for Telasi at defined amounts for the whole period from 1 April 2013 to 2025, but allowed for modifications in individual situations.
According to the arbitration request, the company could raise consumer tariffs in tandem with any increase in the weighted average purchase tariff-annual cost estimates calculated by analysing imports, losses on power transmission networks, and transmission and transit expenses, among other things.
To justify the refusal, Georgia's National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC), a state body that regulates the tariffs at which Telasi purchases electricity from Georgia's generating companies and then sells it to end customers, referred to its updated 2014 Methodology for Electricity Tariff Calculation.
Unlike its previous 2011 version, which allowed for exceptions by giving precedence to contractual and other specific arrangements accepted by the government, and which granted tariff adjustments in cases like Telasi and its Memorandum, the updated methodology did not allow for depreciation-based tariff adjustments.