DUSHANBE, December 3, 2009, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday December 2, Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov ordered to introduce the Dushanbe heat and power station into operation until December 15.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the Dushanbe heat and power station director Umarali Niyozov said that they were ready to launch the station at any time “if the problem with natural-gas supply is solved, because the station mainly runs on natural gas.”
“Under the agreement signed between Barqi Tojik and Tojiktransgaz (Tajik state natural-gas distributor) in October this year, Tojiktransgaz is to supply 180 million cubic meters of natural gas to the Dushanbe heat and power plant in autumn-winter 2009-2010, however we have not yet received gas,” Niyozov said.
To operate in full capacity, the Dushanbe heat and power plant needs 80,000 cubic meters of natural gas or 70 tons of fuel oil per hour, while, the station now has only 12,300 tons of fuel oil.
Niyozov noted that they were currently considering the possibility of keeping the station operating at minimum capacity (up to 15 percent of its full capacity). According to him, the station that was built in 1968 has capacity of 198MW and 357 gigacalories.
“We are currently also considering the possibility to launch the Eastern boiler house this year,” said Niyozov, “This boiler house will work on domestic natural gas; it is expected to receive 1,500 cubic meters of natural gas per hour.”
In the meantime, the source at Tojiktransgaz says they now receive natural gas from Tajik gas fields at the rate of 7,000 cubic meters per hour.
