The Republic of Armenia practically has no natural fuels. Excluding non-conventional power sources hydro resources is presented as an exclusive local energy resource. Armenia being a typical mountainous country the main energy potential of rivers is their big fall. Available hydro resources are estimated to be approximately 21.8 billion kWh including 18.6 billion kWh for big and medium rivers and 3.2 billion kWh for small rivers.

The power system of Armenia before the end of the 1950s consisted of only hydro power plants (HPP). About 90% of electric power was generated at 6 HPP of the Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade. These HPP have a total installed capacity 556 MW and planned power generation 2300 million kWh.

 

 

Figure 1, presents a chronologically summarised history of the Armenian power sector development based on total installed generating capacity growth (in MW). On the secondary axis of this figure, the capacity factor of Armenian power sector is presented. The capacity factor (in %), determined as the ratio between total annual power gross-generation and total installed rated power multiplied by number of hours in a year, reflects the intensity of installed generating power exploitation.