DUSHANBE, March 14, 2016, Asia-Plus – Russia could invest in construction of regional power transmission line from Central Asia to South Asia (CASA 1000), Sergey Pikin, Director of the Energy Development Fund, told Russia’s new website
Ekonomika Segodnya
(Economics Today) in an interview on March 11.
“On the one hand, Russia could invest in implementation of the project, while on the other hand, Russia has the necessary power generation facility in Tajikistan that could supply electricity to Afghanistan,” Pikin said.
According to him, Russia has invested in construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant but Tajikistan has failed to ensure the necessary recoupment rate. “CASA 1000 could provide the necessary volume of power exports so that investments in this power plant would become profitable,” Pikin noted.
He further noted that there ought not to forget that “militants [in Afghanistan] have repeatedly blown up the power transmission lines and the Afghan authorities are now not able to provide security of these facilities.” Therefore, investments are connected, to certain extent, with risk, the Energy Development Fund top manager noted.
Sergey Pikin has been Director of the Energy Development Fund since 2007. He is also engaged in projects of long-term forecasting scenarios for the power industry, including engineering projects for the construction and modernization of power generation and transmission facilities. He is a member of the working group of the national business initiative to improve the investment climate in the Russian Federation in the field of “Improving access to energy infrastructure.” He is a Leaders’ Club member (NGO “Leaders Club to Promote Business Initiatives”), initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
We will recall that the CASA 1000 Project is expected to develop the necessary physical infrastructure and create the institutional and legal framework to transmit surplus power available from existing generation facilities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The physical infrastructure for CASA 1000 is likely to include: a 500 kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system between Tajikistan and Pakistan through Afghanistan; an AC transmission link from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to connect to the HVDC line from Tajikistan to South Asia; and the necessary electricity sub-stations in Kabul, Peshawar and Sangtuda (in Tajikistan).
The World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK Department for International Development (DFID) have reportedly agreed to provide funds for construction of the Tajik section of the regional power transmission line.
The CASA 1000 project is scheduled to be completed in 2020. The total cost of the project amounts to more than $1 billion.
