Power generation: Tajikistan plans production boost to increase exports

Country already working on a project to supply 1,000MW to Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD:

Tajikistan is planning to increase power generation by 40% annually by 2016 in an effort to increase exports to neighbouring and regional countries including Pakistan, says an official of the Tajik embassy.

The country is already working on a plan to export 1,000 megawatts of electricity to Pakistan under the Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) power supply project. It has offered another 1,000MW by laying a transmission line in northern areas of Pakistan.



Pakistan has been facing acute power shortages, especially in the summer, and is finalising a commercial electricity import deal with Tajikistan to minimise outages. Apart from this, the government is also looking for electricity purchase from India.

“The increase in power generation is aimed at meeting maximum export needs,” the embassy official said.

Tajikistan produces about 17 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity in a year and is making efforts to step up generation to 25 billion kWh in the next two years.

According to the official, a specified volume of electricity will be produced through completion of construction work and commissioning of a reservoir, regulating the flow of water and paving the way for new power facilities.

“Implementation of these plans will ensure energy independence and increase the export potential up to 8 billion kWh per year during summer,” he said.

At present, small, medium and large power projects, which are under construction, include Rogun and Sangtuda-2 hydroelectric power plants, Dushanbe-2 thermal power station as well as high-voltage 500-kilovolt transmission line named Obi Garm-Dushanbe.

In terms of potential hydropower resources, Tajikistan is ranked eighth in the world, after China, Russia, USA, Brazil, Zaire, India and Canada. Its current use of hydropower resources leads to production of about 17 billion kWh per year, which constitutes about 3% of existing capacity.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2014.

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