Tajikistan is currently supplying electricity only to Afghanistan, while electricity deliveries to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have been suspended, the Minister of Energy and Water Resources Daler Juma told reporters in Dushanbe on February 1.
“Following a decline in water levels in all rivers of the country last year, the government last summer reduced electricity deliveries to neighboring countries in order to ensure the regular supply of electricity to residential customers during autumn-winter period,” the minister said.
Compared to 2019, the country’s electricity exports last year reduced by 48 percent, the minister noted.
“Currently, minimum electricity is going from Tajikistan to neighboring countries. This is necessary in order keep the power transmission lines connected,” Juma added.
Tajikistan has sufficient summer-time (defined as May 1 to September 30) hydropower surpluses to export to the neighboring countries.
Representative of Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national power utility company), for his part, noted that although power transmission lines running to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are connected according to the so-called “dead-end” method, electricity is currently not supplied to these countries.
According to him, Tajikistan last year generated a total of 19,770,500,000 kWh of electricity. Of this amount, 1,528,400,000 kWh of electricity was supplied to the neighboring countries.
Compared to 2019, last year’s power generation in Tajikistan reportedly decreased by 905.7 million kWh.
Recall, the Tajik government introduced the electricity rationing in rural areas on January 5. The power rationing was introduced in connection with a decline in the water level in the reservoir powering the Nurek hydroelectric power plant (HPP). Residential customers in rural areas now have electricity seventeen hours per day – from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. Electricity rationing has not affected Dushanbe, regional administrative centers and large cities.
