While on his working visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubayev on February 5 toured the construction site of the Roghun hydropower plant.
Tajikistan’s state-run news agency Khovar, citing Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Roghun NBO, reports that top Kyrgyz diplomat got acquainted with the progress of work at the hydropower plant’s facilities.
According to Khovar, the Kyrgyz delegation was particularly interested in inspecting tunnels, turbines and the transformer room.
The Roghun hydroelectric plant project (HPP) is one of the largest projects in the region that can become an important factor of development of Tajikistan and the Central Asian region as a whole. It will contribute significantly to the country’s sustainable development by efficiently utilizing natural resources, including “green” energy.
Two of the six turbines have already started producing energy for sale to raise funding to complete it. The first turbine went into service in November 2018 and the second one was introduced into operation in September 2019.
In his address to a joint meeting of both chambers of parliament, President Emomali Rahmon said on December 28, 2023 that the next unit of the Roghun hydropower plant is planned to be introduced into operation in 2025.
The hydropower plant is expected to have six turbines with combined capacity of 3600 MW. When complete, it is expected to produce 17.1 terawatt-hour (TWh) of electrical work per year.
It is to be noted that Kyrgyzstan has aspirations to build its own mega-dams, although not quite on the same scale.
Recall, the energy ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan signed a "roadmap" agreement on January 6 last year in Bishkek to build the Kambarata-1 dam and hydropower plant. The site is on the Naryn River. The Kambar-Ati-1 hydropower plant at the base of the dam will have a capacity of around 2,000 megawatts
