On February 1, 2022, the Armenian Energy Exchange (AEX) software (Wholesale Electricity Market Management System) officially went live, ushering in a new era of technological advancement for the Settlement Center CJSC (a company owned by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure), and significantly increasing market liberalization and cross-border trade for the electricity producers, suppliers, and purchasers of energy throughout Armenia.  The launch of the AEX will assist the Government of Armenia, the Public Services Regulatory Commission, and the Market Participants in shaping a conducive investment climate, fostering competition in the domestic market, and creating new opportunities for regional trade.

Following Armenian independence from The Soviet Union in 1991, country-wide efforts to liberalize markets, including the energy market began.  USAID/Armenia assisted with several of these efforts, including the establishment of an independent energy regulator, helping to increase competition in the electricity and gas sectors, initiating large-scale privatization of energy generation and distribution, and substantially improving the delivery of electricity across the country. During this process over the past couple of decades, another challenge emerged.  Due to the ageing infrastructure in the country and the Metsamor Nuclear Plant, a Soviet-era power plant which produced a significant amount of Armenia’s energy, Armenia was creating an energy surplus, and thus wasting energy, as it had no mechanism to facilitate the export of electricity to neighboring countries such as Georgia. Addressing this challenge, along with continued market liberalization, and increasing the investment opportunities for clean energy in Armenia became the focus of the recent USAID/Armenia project.

In June 2019, Synergy began work, via subcontract to Tetra Tech ES, on the USAID/Armenia funded Market Liberalization and Electricity Trade (MLET) Program. The goal of the program is to diversify the energy sources within Armenia, make the sector attractive for clean energy investment through technological advancement, increase energy independence, and strengthen regional economic integration through the creation of trade mechanisms.

Synergy was tasked with the design, development, pilot roll-out, future technical support and Market Participant training of the AEX, a system custom built for the wholesale energy market of Armenia. This month, the AEX officially launched. The system was implemented for the Settlement Center in Armenia and manages the entire wholesale energy market. Like every market, it has two sides it manages, the demand and supply of energy, and the consumers and purchasers of energy. The Settlement Center handles all transactions between these two sides of the market in Armenia, and the AEX is the platform by which the entire market is facilitated.

The AEX MMS has 5 core modules:

Users Database and Market Participant Management Module – The AEX provides User Management, licensing, energy metering, and financial guarantee information on the suppliers and purchasers of energy.

The Market Module – The AEX fully facilitates the trading of energy in different segments of the Market.

Settlements Module – The AEX executes transactions, from bilateral contracts, online auction management, economic modeling, placing, and executing of bids, and settling transactions via contracts and invoices.

Operations Module – The AEX supports the Market Server Provider, setting and dynamically changing Tariffs, Service fees and other system validations.

Monitoring Module – The AEX provides a suite of statistical analysis features that market participants, potential investors, or government personnel can use to better understand the energy market.  Dashboards and custom reports can be created on a wide variety of different segments of the energy market.

Within the 5 Core modules, the AEX MMS supports 9 fundamental functionalities:

1. Online registration of Market Participants
2. Management of balance groups and schedules
3. Electronic registration and confirmation of bilateral contracts
4. Day-ahead trading and the online auction toolset
5. Automatic settlement of imbalance and related service charges
6. Invoicing and financial operations management
7. Market monitoring and analysis
8. Real-time metering data collection and allocation
9. Transaction allocation (daily nominations per delivery point)

PIDS is the first online data monitoring system for USAID/Liberia, automating the annual performance review and informing Mission-level decision making. Mission users achieved 100% data collection from Implementing Partners while the system has fully automated the data aggregation for the Mission’s annual Performance Plan and Report and indicator-associated data, such as the last date when the Data Quality Assessment was conducted.

In February 2021, the PIDS Activity Project (PAP) was launched which is designed to support USAID/Liberia and its implementing partners. The primary purpose of the PAP is to support USAID/Liberia by maintaining and improving the existing PIDS functionalities, ensuring continuation of the performance monitoring activities.

During this year-long program, Synergy has provided technical support, hosting, and maintenance of the PIDS, and mobile app, electronic PIDS (ePIDS). Synergy also provided maintenance and operational support to the USAID/Liberia ArcGIS Online platforms. The Mission has relied on PIDS to prepare the PPR for USAID/Washington, and to prepare for the DIS data migration. Synergy managed these various platforms for USAID/Liberia that enhanced learning, reporting, and knowledge sharing.

In addition to supporting USAID/Liberia by maintaining and improving the functionality of PIDS, Synergy is providing technical assistance in the Mission-wide transition of indicator reporting from the PIDS to the Development Information Solution (DIS) platform. USAID/Liberia started the transition to DIS quarter one as USAID began piloting the global information system across several Missions in Asia and Africa.

Read the close out report to learn more about the methods and approaches we’ve used as well as activities and results achieved.

On February 1, 2021, USAID/Armenia Acting Mission Director Mr. David Hoffman, Deputy Minister of the Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Mr. Hakob Vardanyan and Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission Mr. Garegin Baghramyan participated in the presentation of the WEM Management System and launched the Pilot -Transition to the new WEM Model in Armenia. About 80 energy sector professionals including the key counterparts for the MLET Program at the Public Services Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, the Market Operator, the System Operator as well as working group members and electricity trade responsible persons assigned from the generators, transmitter, distributor, universal supplier, wholesale electricity trader participated in the event.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Market Liberalization and Electricity Trade (MLET) Program supports Armenia’s efforts to make the country’s energy market more attractive to private investment, to expand electricity trade with Georgia to promote greater energy security for Armenia, to diversify Armenia’s energy supply, and to make the country’s energy markets more efficient and transparent. The main counterparts of the USAID MLET Program are the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, the Republic of Armenia Public Services Regulatory Commission, and other key energy sector institutions.

To assist in the MLET Program’s efforts for liberalizing the wholesale electricity market and improving electricity trade in Armenia, Synergy International Systems (Synergy) has been selected in June 2019 to support Tetra Tech ES, Inc. in implementing USAID MLET Program’s task component on design and development of automated information technology platform – Armenian Energy Exchange (AEX), which will enable the Armenia Wholesale Electricity Market Operator and System Operator, as well as Market Participants to interact and organize the wholesale trading of electricity.

The MMS platform will be a key tool to implement operation of the Armenia Wholesale Electricity Market through enabling electronic communications and trade in different segments of the market, performance of energy transactions and settlements, configuring data visualizations, and empowering users to explore market results. The MMS platform will also allow for full transaction and information exchange automation, ensure transparency through controlled access to energy market information, and ensure security and maintenance of the market records and reports.

The project is in the initial development phase, after completing the initial system design process in October.

Disclaimer: This article is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the publisher and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.