DUSHANBE, January 14, Asia-Plus — Electricity generated by the first of four units of the sangtuda-1 hydropower plant will be used to meet electricity requirements of southern Tajikistan, Tajik state-controlled energy company Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) said.
Rashid Gulov, deputy engineer-in-chief with Barqi Tojik, told Asia-Plus that the first unit of the Sangtuda-1 plant would have a planned capacity of 220 million kWh, and once all four units are completed, the station would have an annual projected capacity of 2.7 billion kWh of electricity. “Electricity generated by the first unit will be used to meet electricity requirements in the southern Khatlon province,” the Barqi Tojik official said, added that a 220-kV power grid “Sangtuda-Lolazor” had been constructed to transmit electricity to Khatlon.
In the meantime, construction of the power-transmission line “Lolazor-Khatlon” is under way and expected to be completed in March. China’s TBEA, which has been granted the contract to construct the power grid, has to date installed more than 150 Chinese transformers.
The grid will transmit electric power generated by the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant to the Kulob group of districts and other districts of the Khatlon province.
We will recall that Barqi Tojik and TBEA signed contracts for the construction of high-voltage electricity transmission lines in Tajikistan in April 2006. They agreed to build the 500-kV, 350-kilometer “South-North” line, linking Tajikistan”s southern and northern regions, and a 220-kV 93-kilometer line, called the “Lolazor-Khatlon” line, in the Khatlon province.
The “South-North” line will be able to transmit up to 8 billion kWh of electricity a year; the capacity of the “Lolazor-Khatlon” line will be some 4 billion kWh of electricity a year.
Meanwhile, some Russian news agencies said that introduction of the first of four units of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power station (HPS) into non-load operation, scheduled for today, had been postponed again. The first unit was expected to be launched into operation on January 18.
We will recall that Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia’s state-controlled energy entity YeES, last month said in an interview with Russia’s news agency Itar-Tass that he had approved the schedule of launch of the first unit – January 18, 2008. “I am sure we will launch it,” Chubais said, reminding that the first unit should have been launched in March 2008 but the Tajik government requested to speed up the launch of the first unit.
Russia’s Unified Energy Systems has spent approximately $500 million to build Sangtuda-1, and the Russian entity 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 – enough to meet Tajikistan’s domestic needs and allow for the export of electricity, namely to Afghanistan.
