DUSHANBE, July 1, 2008, Asia-Plus — An official ceremony of putting the second unit of the Russian-built Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) into commission is being held today morning. The ceremony, presided over by President Emomali Rahmon, will be attended by the head of Russian president’s office Sergey Naryshkin, Rakhmetulla Alzhanov, the director general of open joint-stock company Sangtuda HPP-1, which is building the station, said.
As it had been reported earlier the second unit began generating electrical power Monday early in the morning. According to Alzhanov, the second unit began generating electricity today, at 1:50 a.m..
The first unit of the Sangtuda-1 station was put into commission on January 20 this year. The Sangtuda-1 plant was hailed as a first step in alleviating Tajikistan”s energy crisis. The first unit of the Sangtuda-1 plant has a planned capacity of 220 million kWh, and once all four units of the plant are operational, the station will have an annual projected capacity of 2.7 billion kWh of electricity.
Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (RAO YeES) retains a 75 percent share in the power plant, which will generate a projected 2.7 billion kWh of electricity per annum. The power station will have an estimated capacity of 670 MW.
