Over the first ten months of this year, Tajikistan has earned 101 million U.S. dollars (USD) exporting electricity to neighboring countries, which is 10.7 percent more than in the same period last year (in January-October last year, Tajikistan exported 91.3 million USD to neighboring countries), according to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, electricity export earnings in October decreased 13 times compared to September – from 17.1 million USD to 1.3 million USD.
In January-October this year, electricity has accounted for 5.7 percent of Tajikistan’s exports.
Tajikistan now supplies electricity to Uzbekistan and northern provinces of Afghanistan within the framework of contracts concluded with power utility companies of these countries.
Tajikistan reportedly supplies electricity to Afghanistan at the rate of 4.67 cents per 1 kWh.
Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national power utility company) and its Afghan analog, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), signed an updated electricity supply deal worth US$69 million in December on the supply of 400 megawatt-hours of electricity daily in May-September and 25-30 megawatt-hours of electricity daily in October-April.
If that arrangement is executed as agreed, Tajikistan will provide Afghanistan with 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity this year. That is more than the 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours that Dushanbe says it delivered last year.
As fa as Uzbekistan is concerned, Tajikistan supplies electric power to this country at the rate of 2.00 cents per 1 kWh.
The low price for electricity supplied to Uzbekistan is due to the fact that Tajikistan, in turn, receives natural gas from Uzbekistan at a reduced price.
In accordance with the reached agreements, Tajikistan reportedly supplies electricity to the neighboring countries (Afghanistan and Uzbekistan) only during the April-October period.
Tajikistan has sufficient summer-time (defined as May 1 to September 30) hydropower surpluses to export to the neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, residential customers in rural areas of Tajikistan have been faced with restricted electricity supplies since late September.
