In accordance with President Ilham Aliyev’s Decree on Simplifying the Procedure for Supplying Existing and New Construction Sites of Entrepreneurs with Electricity, entrepreneurs in Mingachevir, Sabirabad, Barda, Gabala, and Masalli districts can now request electricity supply of up to 150 kW from the existing 0.4 kV network through ASAN Service Centers. Previously, electricity connections for entrepreneurs were only provided via ASAN Utility Centers in Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, and Guba districts.

Ramil Huseyn, Head of the Strategic Research and Development Department at the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication (CAERC), and Elsevər Rustamli, Head of the Prospective Development and ASAN Services Department at Azerishiq JSC, provided detailed explanations to journalists about the new procedures.

It was highlighted that technical conditions for connecting entrepreneurial facilities up to 150 kW to the 0.4 kV network will now be issued by Azerishiq JSC via ASAN Service and ASAN Utility Centers within a maximum of 24 days, regardless of the district. For comparison, while electricity connections in many developed countries may take several months, the process in Azerbaijan has been reduced from 69 to 24 days. Another significant reform is the reduction of procedures under the one-stop system from 7 steps to 3. Additional benefits for entrepreneurs include full digitalization of operations and minimizing direct contact with officials.

The provision of electricity to non-residential facilities via ASAN Service and ASAN Utility Centers now covers all regions nationwide. This initiative demonstrates the practical implementation of ongoing economic reforms.

It is important to note that one of the measures outlined in the Strategic Roadmap for the Production of Consumer Goods at the Small and Medium Enterprise Level (Measure 1.5.5) focuses on simplifying the connection process of SMEs to relevant utility services. Efforts will continue to streamline procedures for connecting SMEs to electricity networks, improve the issuance of technical conditions, and fully digitalize the process. President Aliyev’s decree is thus of strategic importance in realizing the objectives set out in the Strategic Roadmap.

Simplifying access to electricity supports entrepreneurs in organizing their operations more efficiently and positively impacts Azerbaijan’s position in international indices. In particular, the “Electricity Access” indicator in the globally recognized Doing Business report has improved, reflecting the reduction and simplification of state procedures resulting from continuous economic reforms led by President Ilham Aliyev.