Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev thanked Russia and Georgia, who helped Azerbaijan during the break in the energy system, speaking at a meeting on the state of the country’s energy system.
"They helped us in such a situation. As you know, Azerbaijan maintains close relations with these countries, we have friendly relations and whenever any accidents occur, we help and they help us. This is a very important factor and I want to express my gratitude again," Ilham Aliev said.
The president stressed that all the perpetrators of the accident in the energy system must be identified and punished, noting that all the issues should be discussed widely at the next meeting of the Commission on the accident.
"I want to say again that the cause of the accident should be investigated. Now we have preliminary information, but we need more information. Although the causes of the accident are important, the more important is the failure of the overall system as a result of an accident. This is a very serious fact and additional measures should be taken that if any accidents happen in the future, the overall system should not be affected from it. That is, the accident needs to be local. I think, it should be the focus of the commission's work. An action plan should be developed. The action plan should also include the opinions voiced at this meeting today, including the issue of involving international audit. I think it is very important. Complete inspection and audit of the Thermal Power Plant in Mingachevir should be carried out. At the same time, all the energy systems of our country should be analyzed and proposals should be made by the international, leading organizations with selected professionalism in this area. All the perpetrators must be identified and punished," the head of state said.
He underlined that the accident that has taken place twice should be investigated very seriously: "In recent years, huge investments have been made in the energy sector of Azerbaijan. Over the last 15 years, dozens of new power stations have been put into operation in Azerbaijan. Over the past 15 years, 2500 megawatt new power stations have been built. Our current energy potential is 6400 megawatts. Its 2,500 megawatts were created over the last 15 years. New power stations have been established in all regions of our country. Hydropower stations were established in Baku, Sumgayit, Shirvan, Astara, Khachmaz, Shaki, Guba, as well as in the regions. The geography of these stations shows that we tried to build new stations in all regions of our country to ensure stability in the energy system. However, as a result of an accident, the entire energy system was almost out of order. This issue creates very serious questions that should be studied very seriously," Aliyev stressed.
The president said that as a result of this accident, people suffered greatly from the heat, and the economy suffered greatly. "It is true that both the first and second times the energy supply was restored within a few hours as a result of operative measures. However, these accidents should not occur, and if they happen, it should not lead to such consequences. No country in the world has been insured from accident. However, the accident must be local. The accident that took place at one station had a great impact on our entire energy system. Therefore, I would like to say that a very serious investigation should be carried out, the perpetrators must be brought to justice, and an action plan should be prepared so that we can protect ourselves from these accidents and their consequences in the future," the president noted.
President Aliyev added that it is necessary to look at the issue of installing generators at strategic facilities, first of all in hospitals and subway, as well as expressed gratitude to Azerbaijani people. "The Azerbaijani society has been able to come out of this difficult trial as a whole. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the citizens of Azerbaijan for their support, understanding and civil solidarity. I know that citizens have helped each other. This once again shows that Azerbaijani society is a very mature society and, in essence, there is civil solidarity in Azerbaijan," the Azerbaijani leader concluded.
