Friday’s electricity blackout had nearly led to shutdown of the Tajik aluminum smelter, according to the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) press service.
Igor Sattarov, a spokesman for TALCO, says electricity blackout hit the city of Tursunzoda on October 28 at 6:31.
According to him, Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) tried to resume electricity supply to the aluminum smelter at 8:40 pm but it failed.
“Power supply was resumed only at 9:30 pm but Barqi Tojik needed another one and a half hours to resume normal power supply to the smelter,” Sattarov, said, noting that normal power supply to the smelter was resumed at 11:18 pm.
A special commission has been set up to remove effects of the power outage and the commission opinion will be submitted for consideration to the government, the spokesman added.
The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) is one of the ten largest aluminum smelters in the world and provides up to 70% of the country’s foreign currency earnings, consuming 30% of the country’s electrical power. TALCO is wholly owned by the Tajik government. Tajikistan does not mine alumina but imports the raw material through tolling arrangements.
Construction of the Tajik aluminum plant (TadAZ) began in 1972, and the first pouring of aluminum took place on March 31, 1975. On April 3, 2007, TadAZ was officially renamed to TALCO – Tajik Aluminum Company. The Tajik aluminum smelter had the capacity to produce 517,000 metric tons per year.
