DUSHANBE, September 18, Asia-Plus — Kyrgyzstan will not be able to supply promised 300 million kWh of electrical power to Tajikistan in autumn-winter 2007-2008, Nozirjon Yodgori, a spokesman for Tajikistan’s Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric system) power holding, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“Representatives from Kyrgyzstan’s energy sector stated at the last meeting of the Coordination Commission for Central Asia and Kazakhstan, which was held in Dushanbe this month, that reservoirs powering Kyrgyz power plants are so low that the output of hydroelectric power stations has been seriously affected and the country will experience a 3 billion kWh shortage of electricity in the upcoming winter itself,” the source said.
According to him, Tajikistan last year imported some 500 million kWh of electricity from Kyrgyzstan
The issue of importing 1 billion kWh of electricity from Turkmenistan has not been yet resolved as well. “Turkmenistan has not yet signed an agreement on the unified power grid of the counties of the region and the Russian Federation; it withdrew the agreement in 2002,” the spokesman said.
We will recall that to revive a regional power grid linking Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan it is necessary to repair a 500-kilovolt power-transmission line between Turkmen Mary power station and the Uzbek Qoraqol power station.
Therefore, our last hope in this situation is electricity supplies from Uzbekistan, which should supply 600 million kWh of electricity to Tajikistan in the upcoming winter, Yodgori said.
Barqi Tojik has pledged to supply 900 million kWh of electrical power to Uzbekistan this year, and it has to date supplied already 905 million kWh of electricity to the neighboring country, and now, Uzbekistan should supply 600 million kWh of electricity to Tajikistan in autumn-winter 2007-2008.
Nozirjon Yodgori noted that unfortunately, Tajikistan cannot escape electrical power shortages in winter. To cover annual winter shortages of electricity Tajikistan needs on average from 3 billion to 3.5 billion kWh of electricity.
