STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF GEORGIA'S POWER SUPPLY PLAN

Georgia’s effort to update its long-term power supply strategy through 2047 raised complex questions about how the country should balance energy security, hydropower expansion, environmental protection, and community impacts. Policymakers were evaluating multiple development pathways—including large reservoir hydropower, expanded wind and solar generation, restrictions on development in sensitive river basins, and greater reliance on imports—each with distinct technical, environmental, and social tradeoffs. Georgia’s electricity system operator (GSE) and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development needed a planning process that integrated power system modeling with rigorous environmental and social analysis. The World Bank hired DHInfrastructure to lead that effort.

DHInfrastructure drafted Georgia's Strategic Environmental and Social Analysis (SESA), managing parallel workstreams that needed to be tightly integrated in the final product. We assessed the impact of a range of alternative generation scenarios—including limiting construction on new rivers, restricting large reservoir hydropower, scaling up wind and solar, and varying import assumptions—against sensitivities on future electricity demand, import and export costs, and energy efficiency. We also ensured that the environmental and social assessment of each scenario was grounded in the same analytical framework as the technical modeling rather than treated as a separate exercise. We maintained ongoing engagement with three institutional counterparts (the World Bank, GSE, and the Ministry) each bringing their own perspectives and priorities to the process, and managed communication and review processes across all three simultaneously. Finally, we prepared a stakeholder engagement plan to guide GSE and the Ministry as they took the SESA through public consultations, translating the technical findings into a framework that non-specialist audiences could engage with meaningfully.

The Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment became part of the analytical foundation for Georgia’s ongoing electricity sector planning and energy transition discussions. By integrating power system modeling with environmental and social analysis in a single framework, the work helped government and sector stakeholders evaluate the tradeoffs associated with different development pathways, including large hydropower, variable renewable energy, and increased regional electricity trade. The SESA was formally published by Georgia State Electrosystem and informed broader discussions within the Government of Georgia and development partner community regarding renewable energy expansion, environmental safeguards, stakeholder engagement, and long-term alignment with European energy and climate frameworks.