Power outage has begun in many cities and districts of Tajikistan. Authorities say power outages in the regions are due to the scheduled repairs.
Power outages have begun in the city of Tursunzoda as well as in Kushoniyon, Roudaki, Vose, Hamadoni and some other districts. People there say the power is turned off from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m.
Meanwhile, power rationing has not yet been officially introduced in the country. Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) denies it is implementing a rationing regime, saying only that power is disconnected intermittently because of ongoing repairs at the power transmission lines to them for winter period.
Regional power grids (networks for delivering electricity to customers) also say that power outages are a temporary measure.
Power outages hit rural areas last year as well. The country’s power utility company Barqi Tojik said last year that the problem arose from a dramatic drop in water levels in a reservoir powering the Nurek hydropower plant and the planned repairs at the power transmission lines.
But why repairs and control and preventive measures at the power transmission lines are carried out not in the summer, but in the fall.
Today, people in the mentioned areas are forced to cook food over a wood fire due to the power outages
Due to power outages, demand for candles, coal, firewood and matches has increased in rural areas. Although their prices have not yet risen, there is a shortage of these goods.
Tajikistan is heavily dependent on hydroelectric power and regularly experiences electricity outages in autumn-winter period.
The practice of rationing electricity began in Tajikistan the early 1990s. Such were the shortages, that desperate citizens chopped down trees in vast amounts, depriving Tajikistan of ecologically precious forests.
The situation with power supplies was meant to improve after the commissioning in 2018 of the first pair of generating turbines at the Roghun hydropower plant.
