DUSHANBE, January 19, Asia-Plus — Tajik MPs plan to make amendments to the country’s energy legislation facilitating development of small hydropower in the country, Mirzosharif Islomiddinov, head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Energy, Industry, and Construction, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the work on a bill making changes and addenda to the RT Law “On Energy” is under way. “Amendments are aimed at promoting development of small hydropower in Tajikistan through attracting foreign investments for construction of new and modernization of old small power plants in the country,” Islomiddinov said, noting that since electricity rates in the country are miserable it is unprofitable to invest in the construction of hydroelectric power stations in Tajikistan.
Tajik MP noted that small power plants should also have an opportunity to export surplus of electricity generated in the summer period. According to him, the bill will be submitted for consideration to the Majlisi Namoyandagon board (Shuro) in the near future.
As it had been reported earlier, in October last year, Tajik government endorsed a long-term program of construction of small hydropower electric plants in the country between 2007 and 2020. Under the program, 71 small power plants are scheduled to be built by 2020. The total capacity of the plants will be 480.571 million kWh of electricity a year.
We will recall that current prices of electricity in Tajikistan are 2.66 dirams per 1 kWh of electricity for industrial enterprises, 1.6 dirams for organizations funded from the budget, and 4.9 dirams for commercial enterprises. Residential customers pay at the rate of 1.6 dirams per 1 kWh of electricity for 250 kWh and at the rate of 2.7 dirams for usage in excess of this amount.
According to Radio Liberty, Rashid Gulov, an official with Barqi Tojik power holding, said that a special commission had been set up to supervise gradual price increases. According to Gulov, an average price of one kWh of electricity should reach 7 dirams (equivalent to 2 cents) by 2010.
