United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia (MENR) signed a Program Implementation Letter declaring their support for the implementation of the Georgian Electricity Market Model 2015 (GEMM 2015), at the Tbilisi Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, at 3:00 pm on January 24, 2013. The Letter was signed by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia, Kakha Kaladze, and USAID Mission Director, Stephen M. Haykin.

GEMM 2015 will greatly enhance the enabling environment for private sector led hydropower development in Georgia, by providing the transmission paths, trading tools and risk mitigation options that hydropower plants require to sell their electricity into the Turkish and regional competitive electricity markets. The MENR has committed to using its best efforts to achieve GEMM 2015, and will adopt six-monthly Action Plans to help guide it, and the country’s energy sector institutions, along the critical path for GEMM 2015 implementation. A summary of the MENR’s first 6-monthly Action Plan is included as an attachment to the Program Implementation Letter.

USAID has provided strong support to the Government of Georgia for over 20 years, including helping it to develop the functioning energy industry that is currently in place. Under the current Assistance Agreement between USAID and MENR, USAID provides technical, economic and environmental studies, investment promotion and marketing, and capacity building to enable Georgia to develop the hydropower sector. USAID is fully supportive of the MENR’s decision to adopt GEMM 2015 as a core strategy for the sector, and continues to provide technical assistance to the Ministry, and other energy sector institutions, to help them achieve GEMM 2015, and execute the six-monthly Action Plans that will guide its implementation.