DUSHANBE, July 29, 2010, Asia-Plus – Uzbekistan has not replied to numerous proposals of Barqi Tojik (Tajik electricity supplier) on restoration of parallel work of Tajik electric system and Central Asia’s unified power system, Bahrom Azimov, the first deputy head of Barqi Tojik, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe yesterday.
“The issue of resumption of work of the Central Asian unified power system in a parallel regime was discussed at the latest meeting of the Coordination Electric Power Council of the Central Asia (CA CEPC) that took place at the end of last month in Almaty, Kazakhstan,” said Azimov, “The proposal on Tajikistan’s joining the regional power system was among the issues tabled to the meeting’s agenda and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan seconded the proposal. Representatives of these countries noted that they are ready to connect our electric system to the parallel work of the regional system any time.”
Meanwhile, connection of Tajikistan’s electric power system to the Central Asian power system depends on connection to Uzbekistan’s power systems. “All the substations for connection of Tajikistan to the regional power system are located on Uzbek territory,” said the Barqi Tojik official, “We have agreed with our Uzbek colleagues to consider the issue in bilateral format. We have repeatedly sent our proposals to Uzbekenergo. Unfortunately, we have not yet received any reply from them.”
The Barqi Tojik top manager Abdullo Yorov, for his part, noted that Tajik was doing everything in its power to restore parallel work with the regional power system. “We have sent an official letter to Uzbek authorities through diplomatic channels,” said Yorov, “However, we have not yet received reply to our letter.”
We will recall that Uzbekistan ended its participation in the Soviet-era electric power grid at the end of last year that automatically cut off Tajikistan’s electric power system from the Central Asian unified power grid. The Tajik Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted said that time that Uzbekistan”s decision to quit the Central Asian power grid is politically motivated.
