The Entire ENA Database from 2018 to 2024 Has Been Deleted
Romanos Petrosyan, the temporary head of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), reported that instances of shadow electricity turnover through fraudulent schemes have been recorded in the company. According to him, some inspectors carried out overbilling instead of actual figures, the burden of which was placed on state and municipal institutions: schools, medical centers, communal services facilities, and night lighting networks in settlements.
Petrosyan noted that the already documented overbilling amounts to several million kilowatt-hours. Currently, more than a dozen criminal proceedings have been initiated. One inspector has been arrested on charges of overbilling a communal non-commercial organization’s meter by over one million drams.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan inquired about the media reports claiming that ENA’s consumption data from 2018–2024 had disappeared. Petrosyan confirmed that this assumption is well-founded, but the issue is deeper: ENA did not have an internal subdivision to service the data from 700,000 meters. For this reason, system maintenance was carried out through external organizations, including Russian companies. Simultaneously, there were about 40 different access points in the system, which created serious security risks.
Petrosyan added that in January 2025, they noticed that the data for the beginning of the year were not being archived. Subsequent investigations revealed a large volume of external interference in the system. The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) has already examined and confirmed a number of violations. The preliminary investigation regarding this matter continues under several criminal proceedings.
According to Romanos Petrosyan, one of the six main reasons for ENA’s license revocation is precisely that deleted database. He also emphasized that it could be inferred that the overbilling would have been visible and provable within those databases.