DUSHANBE, April 23, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan may cancel a deal with Russian aluminum giant RusAl to build the Roghun hydroelectric power station (HPS), while Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (RAO YeES) is also interested in this project, a board member of the Russian electricity conglomerate said.
On Friday April 20, President Emomali Rahmon received visiting member of board of RAO YeES, Andrey Rapoport.
After a meeting with Tajik president, Rapoport told journalists that they had discussed a progress of the construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant. “We discussed issues of organizing the work in order to put the first unit into operation in December this year,” the RAO YeES official said.
According to him, the Russian electricity monopoly eyes the possibility of participating in the project for construction of the Sangtuda-2 power plant on the Vakhsh River being built by Iran.
Andrey Rapoport of the RAO YeES also said that during the meeting they had also discussed issues related to completing the construction of the Roghun HPS, as well as constructing the Zarafshon hydropower plant and exporting electricity.
Asked about the possibility of participation of Russia’s Unified Energy Systems in completing Roghun, Rapoport said, “As far as we know, RusAl has no operations in Roghun right now. They will probably have internal procedures of clearing up the matter,” said Rapoport, “As for us, we have always been interested in this project. That time we had failed to get the project because RusAl had interfered; otherwise, we would had already put the first unit of Roghun into operation.” “On the other hand, after the Tajik Government and RusAl signed the agreement YeES has been neutral, although we have our own interests,” Rapoport said, noting that they were waiting for the resolution on that matter.
He said that the Roghun project could be put out for international tender instead of the contract with RusAl. According to him, during the meeting he was told that that Tajikistan had prepared papers for an international tender for the construction of the Roghun HPS. “As RusAl has no operations in Roghun, the Tajik side claims that the joint venture is no longer possible,” said Rapoport, “While position of Russia has not yet been clear.”
According to him, experts from YeES met with President Rahmon to communicate their own plans for this plant.
Rapoport noted that Russia must be part of the project to complete Roghun as it is a strategic facility for Tajikistan and an important source of electricity exports to Russia. “If the political leadership determines its position, we are ready to participate in the project,” said the RAO YeES board member, “I thin we should participate in this tender…”
We will recall that RusAl signed a deal to build the 2,400-MW Roghun HPS on the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan in October 2004 at its own expense. Under the feasibility study conducted by Germany”s Lehmeyer International, the dam was to be built to a height of 285 meters, while the Tajik government has since insisted on a height of 335 meters. But RusAl said the government should fund the additional work and first coordinate the project with other states in the Amu Darya basin.
Commenting on the issues related to funding the Sangtuda-1 plant, Rapoport said that there are no any problems with that. “There have been some issue concerning the source of financing but they have already been resolved,” he said.
He further added that the issue of increasing Tajikistan’s share in the Sangtuda-1 was not raised, as it was not considered at a February tripartite meeting in Washington. “If Tajikistan wants this, there are several ways to do this,” Rapoport said.
Russia’s Unified Energy Systems is completing construction on the Sangtuda-1 power plant in Tajikistan, and will retain a 75 percent ownership stake. The power station is scheduled to go into full operation in 2009, with the first unit expected to begin generating electricity in December this year. YeES is spending approximately $500 million to build the 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 to other countries.
