Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP), seeks an opportunity to sell electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP itself.
The company has repeatedly raised the issue of increasing the supply of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP and independently exporting it at different levels.
Recall, Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan national power utility company) is currently the monopoly buyer of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP.
The issues related to operation of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant and the possibility of export of electricity generated by the hydropower plant in accordance with a government-to-government agreement signed between Tajikistan and Russia in 2009 were, in particular, discussed at a meeting of Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Daler Juma and Russian Minister of Energy Nikolai Shulginov that took place in Moscow on February 8.
Representative of OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 told Asia-Plus in an interview that according to the agreements concluded, the company has the right “to sell electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP in accordance with direct contracts and export it by itself.”
These rights are reportedly enshrined in a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on a procedure and conditions for joint participation in construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP and in a government-to-government agreement on operation of this hydropower plant.
In accordance with the agreement on sale of the electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP, the hydropower plant must supply annually 2.7 billion kWh of electricity to Barqi Tojik. However, Barqi Tojik actually buys 1.6 billion KWh – 2.3 billion kWh of the Sangtuda-1 electricity per year.
Meanwhile, the first deputy director of Barqi Tojik, Mahmadumar Asozoda, told reporters in Dushanbe last month that they had reached an agreement on creation of a new financial model of determining the way of return on investment and the volume of generation of electricity by the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant.
At the same time, he ruled out the possibility of export of electricity by hydropower plants themselves.
Asozoda refrained from commenting on the legality of the current model of cooperation and the ban on export.
The Sangtuda-1 HPP, consisting of four units with total capacity of 670 MW, was officially commissioned on July 31, 2009.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.
Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant. Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005. Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.
