DUSHANBE, November 15, Asia-Plus — The Uzbek side is fulfilling its obligations on an agreement to provide supply and transit of Turkmen electricity through Uzbekistan to Tajikistan during the winter months and repairing power grid for transmitting Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan, Iso Sadulloyev, representative from Uzbekenergo (Uzbek state-controlled energy company), told journalists in Dushanbe on November 15, following the 11th session of the Energy Policy Council under the Integration Committee of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC).
According to him, work on repairing the power-transmission line, which has not worked for more than five years, is under way but “for some technical reasons, introduction of the grid into operation is not yet possible.”
However, Sadulloyev assured that transit supply of Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan via Uzbek power systems will start before the end of this year.
In the meantime, Deputy Tajik Energy and Industries Minister, Poulod Muhiddinov, said that Tajikistan did all that it was in its power regarding issues related to repairs to the mentioned power grid and sent spare parts necessary for repairing the grid to Uzbekistan.
We will recall that on October 4, 2007 Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Turkmen counterpart, President Gurbaguly Berdymukhammedov endorsed in Dushanbe a new five-year agreement reached in talks between the energy ministers of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan on the supply and transit of Turkmen electricity through Uzbekistan to Tajikistan during the winter months. The planned volume of Turkmen electrical power is 1 billion kWh.
The agreement is expected to help to ease Tajikistan’s chronic power shortages every winter, when electricity is limited to between four to six hours from October to April.
According to some experts, the Turkmen electricity will allow increasing supply of daily electricity by four hours.
