DUSHANBE, October 27, 2009, Asia-Plus — Kazakhstan plans to pull out of Central Asia’s power grid next month, Vesti.kz reported today, referring to Interfax-Kazakhstan.
Referring to source at Kazakhstan’s national power network management company (KEGOC –Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company), Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on October 27 that Kazakhstan plans to pull out of the CA power grid because uncontracted withdrawal of electricity from the CA power grid, in particular by Tajikistan, has been to observed lately, according to Vesti.kz.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that the supply of Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan via Uzbek power systems is hampered. Non-observance of balance of generation and consumption of electric power may lead to overload of the transit line North-South that, in turn, may lead to serious restrictions in power supplies to consumers of the southern power hub and further possible accident that that will affect power systems of both Kazakhstan and Russia.
The KEGOC executives assure that in case of quitting the Central Asian power grid, Kazakhstan will be able to meet its requirements in electricity and support the power system of Kyrgyzstan.
In the meantime, Uzbekistan planned to pull out of the CA power system on October 15 but then abandoned its plan.
Azeri Trend News on October 15 quoted International columnist of Russia’s
Vremya Novostey
Arkady Dubnov as saying that there is a risk that a power grid of the Central Asia established in Soviet times would be another serious problem in the region. The KEGOC executives told reporters in early October that Uzbekistan has notified the neighboring countries it will leave the parallel work on Central Asia”s power systems beginning on October15. This was followed by the State Joint Stock Company Uzbekenergo”s statement on lack of the country”s intention to leave the Central Asia”s power system interconnection.
Representative of the Uzbek energy company said that the Uzbek side has notified the relevant authorities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan of its plans to discuss changes of terms on the electricity transit to Kyrgyzstan through Uzbekistan. “We want to introduce a fee for electricity transit to Kyrgyzstan once considered as overflows and was free,” the representative of Uzbekenergo said.
