YEREVAN (OC-Media.org) — Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) has voted to revoke the electricity distribution license of the country’s main power grid operator, the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), owned by jailed Russian–Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan’s Tashir Group.
After three days of tense hearings, the PSRC on Monday, November 17, approved the draft decision by four votes to one, clearing the way for the ENA to lose its monopoly license to distribute electricity across Armenia. Commissioner Ara Nranyan voted against and said he would publish a separate opinion.
The session, held in the hall of the Competition Protection Commission and repeatedly disrupted by technical issues and procedural disputes, ended without the regulator withdrawing for a closed door discussion before the vote.
Presenting the conclusions of the PSRC staff, official Meri Ghazaryan said the regulator had proposed the termination of the license based on several serious violations identified by the company’s state-appointed temporary manager, ruling Civil Contract party member Romanos Petrosyan.
According to Petrosyan’s reports, the ENA’s automated metering system failed in January 2025, and data from the company’s electricity metering systems dating back to 2018 were deleted. The regulator has said the ENA also engaged in under-collection and over-billing in a number of regional branches, including the Geghama, Araks, Ghars and Debed units, where local managers were allegedly instructed to ‘ensure losses’ at set percentage levels.
A third key claim concerns financial guarantees the ENA provided on loans taken out by other Tashir-linked companies from Armenian commercial banks. In one case, Tashir Capital reportedly received a $7 million loan from Ardshinbank, backed by the ENA as guarantor; another loan from the AMIO Bank to Armholding was again guaranteed by the grid operator.
