Moscow and separatist Tskhinvali opened a new 110 kV backup power connection to assure uninterrupted electrical delivery to the occupied Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia.

Under better conditions, the four-kilometre backup power line will be linked to the Tskhinvali region's energy system, travelling via the Caucasus highlands, commencing at the recently restored Severnyy Portal station in Russia.

Until the region obtained Russian energy via the Severnyy Portal-Java overhead 110 kV line that ran across the high Caucasus mountains, it was vulnerable to regular wintertime accidents that frequently left the region without power for days.

The electricity line was officially launched on November 26 at the Severnyy Portal power station on the northern side of the Roki tunnel, about two kilometres from the Russian-Georgian border at 2,000 meters above sea level.

Rashid Nurgaliyev, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Igor Maslov, Head of the Russian President's Office for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and Tskhinvali de-facto leader Anatoly Bibilov were among those who attended the event.

The new power line construction and the Severnyy Portal station repair were carried out under the framework of Moscow's Investment program, according to Kremlin-backed officials in Tskhinvali, at a cost of 1.3 billion rubles (USD 17 million).