After rate hike in the regions last month, residents in the capital city Tbilisi will also see their electricity bills increase.

Households in Tbilisi will have to pay 3.5-4.5 tetri more per kWh depending on how much of electricity they consume per month.

The Georgian Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission approved tariff hike for Telasi at a session on September 3.

Telasi, which is an electricity distributor company in the capital city with about 524,500 customers, was requesting rate hike citing increased expenses for purchasing electricity, attributed mostly to depreciation of the Georgian currency lari.

Russia’s state-controlled power trader Inter RAO holds 75.1% of shares in Telasi, the rest is held by the Georgian state.
 
A three-step electricity tariff scheme is in force in Georgia and rates depend on how much electricity is consumed by customers per month.

Electricity tariff in Tbilisi was last revised in January, 2013, when the rate for some category of households were reduced, which was one of the pre-election campaign promises of the Georgian Dream ruling coalition.

According to regulator agency’s September 3 decision the first-step tariff, applying to households in Tbilisi which consume less than 101 kWh electricity per month, will go up from 9.48 tetri (about 4 U.S. cents as of September 2) to 12.98 tetri (about 5.5 cents). With this increase the first-step tariff will still be less than before the previous rate revision in early 2013, when it stood at 13.48 tetri.

The second-step tariff, applying to customers who consume between 101 and 301 kWh electricity per month, will increase from 12.46 tetri per kWh to 16.992 tetri (about 7.2 cents). The increased tariff is slightly more than pre-2013 tariff of 16 tetri.

The third-step tariff, applying to customers who consume more than 301 kWh of electricity per month, will increase from 17.7 to 21.476 tetri (about 9.1 cents) per kWh. Tariff decrease did not apply to this category of consumers in 2013.

Starting from August 1, electricity rate increased by 3.95 tetri for over one million customers of Energo-Pro Georgia, which distributes power to consumers outside Tbilisi in most of the regions, except of Kakheti in eastern Georgia.

After the rate hike in the regions, the government said it would allocate GEL 20 million annually to subsidize increased tariffs for socially vulnerable households. Officials say that the similar scheme is expected to also apply in Tbilisi.