Dushanbe and Tashkent have not yet reached any concrete agreement on the delivery of Tajik electricity to Uzbekistan.
An agreement on the delivery of Tajik electricity to Uzbekistan has not yet been reached and negotiations on this subject are still under way. There are some unsolved technical issues,” Mirzo Ismoilzoda, head of Barqi Tojik (Tajik state-run power company), told reporters in Dushanbe on February 14.
According to him, power engineering specialists of both countries are currently working on solving some technical issues. Besides, the sides have yet to land on a price mechanism.
Barqi Tojik top manager further added that following the meeting of the Tajik-Uzbek commission for trade and economic cooperation that took place in Dushanbe last month Tajikistan committed itself to export 1.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to Uzbekistan during the summer period.
Uzbek state-run power company Uzbekenergo noted on December 22, 2017 that Uzbekistan’s power system is expected to begin operating in parallel with Tajik power system after completion of installation of emergency automation and relay protection at the power system in Tajikistan in 2018.
Uzbekistan officially left the Soviet-era regional power grid that united the country with its three Central Asian neighbors in December 2009.
The move left Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan facing severe electricity shortages during the winter months.
Uzbekistan’s geographic location made it one of the most important members of the unified system, as many regions in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had been supplied with electricity through power lines crossing Uzbek territory.
For the last several years, Turkmenistan has wanted to sell electricity to Tajikistan, but that power would be most easily transferred using lines that cross some 200 kilometers of the territory of Uzbekistan, which left that regional power grid. Therefore, the Turkmen-Tajik deal never moved forward.
However, after introducing new facilities into operation Tajikistan now meets its annual requirements in electricity almost completely.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan (MoEWR), Tajik power system is fully prepared for operation in parallel with the Central Asian unified power grid. Tajikistan is reportedly ready to supply electricity to neighboring countries. Today the only problem is that Uzbekistan has dismantled the 500kV power transmission line from the Guzar substation in its territory to the Regar substation in Tajikistan, Tajik power engineering specialists say.
Tajikistan has sufficient summer-time (defined as May 1 to September 30) hydropower surpluses to export to the neighboring countries.
Tajikistan is reportedly able to export up to 5 billion kWh of electricity during summer period. Today, Tajikistan exports 800 million kWh of electricity to Afghanistan and 600 million kWh of electricity to Kyrgyzstan during summer period. The remaining 3.6 billion kWh of Tajikistan’s surplus electricity remain unused during summer period because of withdrawal of Uzbekistan from the Central Asian unified power grid.
