DUSHANBE, December 3, 2008, Asia-Plus — Administration of open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtuda HPP-1 has asked Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding to pay off 21.4 million Russian rubles (equivalent to more than 6 million US dollars) in arrears that Barqi Tojik now owes to it, Asia-Plus has learned from the Sangtuda HPP-1 director general Rakhmetulla Alzhanov.
He noted that so far, they have sold electricity to Barqi Tojik at the rate of 1.15 cents per one kWh. “Beginning on January 1 2009, the electricity rate will be raised to 3.1 cents,” Alzhanov said.
In the meantime, representatives of Barqi Tojik have refused from commenting on this case.
We will recall that three of four units of the Sangtuda-1 station have already been introduced into operation and the plant currently generates more than 4 million kWh of electrical power per day.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.
Russia retains a 75 percent share in the power 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.
