Armenian Engineers Visit to Study Utilities

Two engineers from the Republic of Armenia arrived in Glendale this week for a one-month stay to learn first-hand how public utilities are administered in a Western, capitalist country.

Vartan Markarian and Gagik Hovannisian will be the guests of the Glendale Public Service Department under the Energy Industry Partnership Program, which brings people involved in the administration of electric and gas utilities in the former Soviet Union to the United States. The program is sponsored by the U. S. Agency for International Aid and the U. S. Energy Assn.

The two engineers, who work for the Armenian Ministry of Energy and Fuels in Yerevan, will study everything from the operation of the city’s power plant to billing and collection procedures, said Bill Hall, Glendale’s electrical services administrator.

“They’re trying to compare how we do things,” Hall said. “Their organization is in a transition period between a socialist setup and trying to do things in a more market economy.”

Public utilities are delivered in Armenia via relatively primitive means, Hall said. Accurate billing is difficult because there are virtually no computers for record-keeping and because of the longstanding tradition of billing users based on social factors rather than actual usage.

Also, utility meters are often located inside homes, where they are not easily accessible to meter readers. Markarian and Hovannisian said they hope to take home information about collection procedures as well as technical operations, Hall said.

Officials said Glendale was chosen as the host city for the Armenian engineers partly because the city has a significant Armenian population. All expenses of their trip are being paid by the U.S. Energy Assn. and the Republic of Armenia.