DUSHANBE, August 19, 2009, Asia-Plus — Uzbekistan has agreed to offer its power systems for transiting Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan in autumn-winter 2009-2010.
An appropriate agreement on this subject was signed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan at the end of last week, according to the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MEI).
We will recall that in 2007, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in 2007 signed a five-year agreement on the annual supply of 1.2 billion kWh of Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan. From November 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, Turkmenistan supplied 400 million kWh of electrical power to Tajikistan via Uzbekistan’s power systems. Meanwhile, Uzbek power authorities interrupted Turkmen electricity deliveries to Tajikistan on January 1, 2009.
The Uzbek side blamed the interruption of Turkmen electricity deliveries to Tajikistan on a malfunction at the Uzbek Qaraqul substation, which is used for Turkmen power deliveries to Tajikistan, however, the Uzbek side refused Tajik power engineers proposal to visit the substation to get acquainted with the problem and assist with making repairs to it. In the meantime, the January 21, 2009 Eurasianet item titled “Tajikistan: Water is Weapon in Uzbek Electricity Talks” said that Uzbekistan demanded 10 percent of the $0.03 per kilowatt paid by Tajikistan to Turkmenistan.
Turkmen electricity deliveries to Tajikistan were resumed only on February 27, 2009 following the second session of the Tajik-Uzbek economic cooperation commission that was held in Dushanbe on February 18, 2009.
The source at a MEI noted that most likely Tajikistan would not import electrical power from Uzbekistan in autumn-winter 2009-2010. “Electrical power we will import from Turkmenistan and electricity that will be generated by Tajik power plants will be enough to meet the country’s requirements in electricity during the autumn-winter period,” said the source, “In the meantime, Uzbekistan will purchase 500 million kWh of electricity from Tajikistan in August-September this year; an appropriate agreement on this subject was signed in early August.”
The source added that Tajikistan currently supplied electrical power to Uzbekistan at the rate of 20-23 million kWh per day. He refrained from saying at what price Tajik power holding Barqi Tojik supplied electricity to the neighboring country and what transit rate for Turkmen electricity crossing Uzbek territory to Tajikistan would be.
