DUSHANBE, August 24, 2011, Asia-Plus — The 220 kV power transmission line from Sangtuda in Tajikistan to Pul-i Khumri in Afghanistan was supposed to be introduced into operation in August but it has been postponed probably till May 2012.
Construction of the power transmission line has been delayed on Afghan territory due to unstable political situation in the country and substations in the Afghan cities of Kunduz and Pul-i Khumri will be completed only in October.
We will recall that Deputy Minister of Energy and Industries, Poulod Muhiddinov, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 22 that the 220 kV power transmission line from Sangtuda in Tajikistan to Pul-i Khumri in Afghanistan will be introduced into operation in August and Tajikistan will supply electricity to Afghanistan through September this year. According to him, construction of the power transmission line on Afghan territory has been delayed due to unstable political situation in Afghanistan, while the Tajik part of the power transmission line was built last year.
“Under an agreement reached between the sides, Tajikistan will supply electric power to Afghanistan at 3.5 cents per one kWh and the electricity price will rise 2 percent annually,” said Muhiddinov, “Uzbekistan, for example, now supplies electricity to Afghanistan at 7.0-7.5 cents per kWh.”
In August and September, Tajikistan was supposed to supply 11 million kWh of electricity per day to Afghanistan.
In the meantime, the Avesta news agency reports the Afghan side is not at all happy with seasonal electricity supply. Avesta, in particular, cited the source at the Ministry of Energy and Industry as saying that negotiations between Tajikistan and Afghanistan on the supply of Tajik electricity to Afghanistan had allegedly failed. According to the source, Afghanistan wants guaranteed twelve-month electricity supply; otherwise, they cannot decline electricity deliveries from Uzbekistan, which supplies electricity to Afghanistan al the year round. The Afghan side says disruption of electricity supply to Kabul during autumn-winter period may cause dissatisfaction of the population.
Meanwhile, representative from Barqi Tojik (the state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan) noted that no negotiations had been conducted and there was no question of refusal. “The main problem is unstable political situation in Afghanistan,” said the source, “All these disorders impede implementation of the project. Therefore, the supply of Tajik electricity to Afghanistan through this power transmission line will start most likely in May 2012.”
A total cost the Tajikistan-Afghanistan 220 kV interconnection project that was launched in 2009 is 56.5 million U.S. dollars and it is financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, and the governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
On the territory of Tajikistan, the line starts in the Sanguda-1 hydroelectric plant and ends on the Tajik-Afghan border. The 220 kV Tajikistan-Afghanistan power transmission line is 278 kilometers long, and 116 kilometers of it lies on Tajik territory and 162 kilometers on Afghan territory.
