DUSHANBE, November 12, 2009, Asia-Plus — Construction of the South-North power transmission and introduction of it into operation could not incite Uzbekistan to pull out of the Central Asian power grid, Sanat Rahimov, the head of Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding, told reporters in Dushanbe today.
According to him, the South-North power line has regional significance and it is being constructed to strengthen the energy market in Central Asia. “It is continuation of the Central Asian regional power grid,” said Rahimov, “The power line that has been constructed in Tajikistan from Regar (central Tajikistan) to Khujand (Sughd province) will be connected to the substation Dadka in Kyrgyzstan and Almaty in Kazakhstan that will allow exporting surplus electricity from the Central Asian region to South Asia’s states.”
Commenting on speculation of Georgy Petrov, the head of the hydropower engineering laboratory within the Institute for Ecology, Hydropower Engineering and Water Problems of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, that Uzbek authorities’ decision to withdraw from the Central Asian power grid has allegedly been provoked by Tajikistan itself, the Barqi Tojik head noted that was not quite correct.
We will recall that Mr. Petrov said, “Announcing launch of a new power line connecting the northern province of Sughd with the south without proper coverage of real appropriation and principles of work of this line in media, Tajikistan has probably urged Uzbekistan on such a decision.” Uzbekistan that has not had all necessary information about the new 500-kilovolt power line South-North has interpreted this decision as Tajikistan’s real step towards withdrawal from the Central Asian power grid,” said the expert.
“We have not provoked Uzbekistan to withdraw from the Central Asian power grid,” said Rahimov, “Last Saturday, I met with the Uzbek First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov in Tashkent and he stated that Uzbekistan withdraws from the Central Asian power grid in order to ensure safety of its power systems. Meanwhile, when an accident took place in our power systems on November 9, Uzbekistan, whose power systems were also affected, rejoined the Central Asian power grid for several hours and we helped each other to remove the accident effects.”
Rahimov added that there ought not to worry about Uzbekistan’s withdrawal from the Central Asian power grid. “We just have to learn to live within our means and save electrical power,” he said.
