DUSHANBE, April 27, Asia-Plus — Sharifkhon Samiyev, the head of Barqi Tojik power holding, told journalists in Dushanbe on April 26 that Tajikistan hopes to have reached an agreement on import of 1 billion kWh of electricity form Turkmenistan already this year.
According to him, the issue of rehabilitation of a 500-kilovolt power transmission line, linking Turkmen Serdar power sub-station with Uzbek Qaraqul power sub-station, is expected to be solved already this summer. “After that, we plan to consider the possibility of transit supply of Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan via the Uzbek power systems,” said Samiyev, “For this, top managers of power companies from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan will meet in Tashkent soon.”
The Barqi Tojik head noted that Tajikistan’s annually requirements in electrical power have increased by 3 percent from year to year.
“800 million kWh of electricity supplied to Tajikistan by Uzbekistan (600 million kWh) and Kyrgyzstan (200 million kWh) in the autumn-winter period are not enough to meet the country’s requirements and therefore we have decided to increase the electricity imports,” said Samiyev, “During the autumn-winter of 2007-2008, we plan to import 1 billion of electrical power from Turkmenistan, 600 million kWh from Uzbekistan and 400 million kWh from Kyrgyzstan.”
He noted that under the government-to-government agreement with Afghanistan, Tajikistan had supplied 8.6 million of kWh of electricity to Afghanistan over the first quarter of the year.
One the present electricity-supply situation in Tajikistan, Samiyev said that the water level in the reservoir powering the Norak hydroelectric power station (HPS) had exceeded the critical level by 5.60 meters.
Over the first three months of the year, Tajikistan has imported 745.3 million kWh of electricity, including 493 million kWh from Uzbekistan, according to him. “Besides, Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO has imported another more than 200 million kWh of electrical power from Kyrgyzstan for its own needs over the same three-month period,” the Barqi Tojik top manager said.
