According to Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company), the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) last year consumed 16.5 percent of Tajikistan’s electricity, which is 13.9 percent less than in 2016.
In 2017, Tajik aluminum smelter reportedly consumed 2.5333 billion kWh of electricity, which was 412.2 million kWh fewer than in 2016.
In 2016, the Tajik aluminum smelter consumed 2.9545 billion kWh of electricity, which was 20.4 percent of the country’s electricity.
Tajikistan last year generated 15.3591 billion kWh of electricity, which was 955.8 million kWh more than in 2016.
Recall, current prices for 1 kWh of electricity are 16.85 dirams (15 percent increase) for residential customers, 40.00 dirams for industrial and non-industrial customers, and 16.85 dirams for federally funded institutions, including public utilities and sports complexes,
Electricity rates for electric boilers, hot water supply and heating system rose to 101.54 dirams for non-federal sphere and to 30.13 dirams for federally funded institutions.
Meanwhile, prices for the Tajik Aluminum Plant (TALCO) remained unchanged – 7.20 dirams for period from May 1 to September 30 and 11.80 dirams for the period from October 1 to April 30.
According to data from Barqi Tojik, the cost price of one kWh of electricity last year was 17.8 dirams and the weighted tariff last year was 15.9 dirams.
It means that TALCO last year was purchasing electricity at the rate two times lower than the cost price.
The TALCO press center noted on October 20, 2016 that the electricity blackout that hit Tajikistan on October 28, 2016 had nearly led to shutdown of the Tajik aluminum smelter. Damaged caused to the Tajik aluminum smelter by the power outage has been estimated at 8 million U.S. dollars.
The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) is one of the ten largest aluminum smelters in the world. It consumes more than 30 percent 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. THz Tajik aluminum smelter has a rated capacity of 517,000 tons of primary aluminum per year. On April 3, 2007, TadAZ was officially renamed to TALCO – Tajik Aluminum Company.
