Shadow circulation, initiated criminal cases, disappearance of consumption data: Petrosyan presented the problems of ENA management 

During a working meeting between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the interim manager of “Electric Networks of Armenia” (ENA) Romanos Petrosyan, new details were presented regarding possible abuses, shadow circulation and systemic problems detected in the company. According to “Armenpress,” the discussion focused on the circumstances of the criminal proceedings, cases of additional charges, and the disappearance of consumption data for the years 2018–2024.
Romanos Petrosyan noted that cases of shadow circulation of electricity were recorded at ENA, carried out through fraudulent schemes. In some instances, inspectors submitted inflated meter readings instead of actual consumption, placing the burden of additional charges on state and community institutions; schools, medical centers, utility facilities, and street lighting networks.
“The additional charges that have already been identified and documented amount to several million kilowatt-hours. Multiplying this by the average tariff of 50 drams, we get tens of millions of drams embezzled,” Petrosyan said.
According to him, more than 10 criminal cases have been initiated at this stage, and there is also an inspector under arrest who had issued more than one million drams in additional charges to the meter of a community non-commercial organization.
Prime Minister Pashinyan was interested about media reports claiming that consumption data for 2018–2024 had disappeared from ENA’s system. He asked whether this disappearance could have been intentional, aimed at concealing the data.
Petrosyan noted that such an assumption is reasonable, but the problem is much deeper.
According to him the ENA did not have a sufficient internal unit to service the data of 700,000 meters. System maintenance was carried out by external organizations, including Russian companies. There were around 40 different access points to the system, which in itself created serious security risks.
“In January 2025 they noticed that the data from the beginning of the year was not being archived. This alone is an indicator of a management crisis and our subsequent studies revealed a large scale of external interference with the system,” Petrosyan said.
According to Petrosyan, the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) has already examined and confirmed a number of violations, and the preliminary investigation continues within the framework of several criminal cases.