U.S. COMPANY TAKES OVER MAJOR GEORGIAN UTILITY.

The AES Corporation of the United States yesterday took over Georgia’s Telasi electrical power company and power grid, which supply Tbilisi and the surrounding region with electricity. AES won the Telasi privatization tender last month, agreeing to pay US$25 million for a 75 percent share and to invest another US$84 million in this ailing Georgian company (Dow Jones Newswires, January 5). AES has pledged to overhaul the capital equipment, introduce modern technologies, ensure steady supplies of electricity without blackouts, and rigorously collect payments from defaulting consumers, starting with those in the industrial sector. To accomplish all this, AES will have to raise charges to consumers.

The electricity supplies, precarious in Georgia for the last few years, have suffered repeated breakdowns in recent weeks owing to failures at the Inguri hydropower and the Tbilisi thermal power plants. The worn-out power-generating blocks at both plants need capital repairs. Pending those repairs, AES will seek to import electricity from neighboring countries for a transitional period (UPI, Itar-Tass, January 5).

TOP TURKMEN MILITARY AIDE DISMISSED.