Uzbekistan to increase power supplies to Afghanistan
By Kamila Aliyeva
Uzbekistan plans to increase electricity supplies to Afghanistan.
This was announced by Deputy Chairman of the Board of Uzbekenergo JSC Shukhrat Sheraliyev on March 24 at a press center of the international conference on Afghanistan.
In order to increase the supply, Uzbekenergo began to build a new transmission line (power line) Surhan-Puli-Khumri.
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement on the construction of a 500 kV transmission line JSC in December 2017. The document was signed during the visit of the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani to Uzbekistan.
Sheraliyev said that Uzbekistan has already started construction work on the territory of the country. In June 2018, construction work will be launched on the territory of Afghanistan.
The new line with a length of 260 kilometer will significantly increase the supply of electricity from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, Chairman of the Board of Uzbekenergo Ulugbek Mustafoyev said earlier.
“In the long term, this line will increase electricity supplies by almost 70 percent with the subsequent access to Pakistan. That is, a new market opens for us,” Mustafoyev said.
At the same time, he recalled that in 2002 the volume of supplies amounted to only 62 million kWh. In turn, the capacity of the new transmission line is estimated at 1,000 MW, which will allow exporting 24 million kWh per day, about 6 billion kWh per year.
“According to our calculations, the payback period of the project is 15 years, the implementation period - three years,” the head of Uzbekenergo said.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. The estimated cost of the project is $150 million, of which $32 million will be directed from the Uzbek side.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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