Uzbekistan launches power transiting from Tajikistan to Afghanistan
By Kamila Aliyeva
Uzbekistan has launched transiting electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan.
As many as 140 million kilowatt-hours of electricity have already been sent to Afghanistan via the networks of the Surkhandarya energy center, Uzbek media outlets reported.
“We signed an additional agreement with Uzbekenergo on the transit of electricity to Afghanistan. Today, the energy systems of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan operate in a replacement mode, but in the near future we will fully restore the parallel work, in this regard there is an instruction of the intergovernmental commission of the two countries,” said the chairman of the Barki Tojik company Ismoilzoda Mirzo Ibrohim.
The head of the company also added that the issue of electricity supplies to Afghanistan is closely connected with the restoration of the existing power transmission line in the territory of this country and, as soon as this issue is resolved, the sides will continue discussion of further cooperation in this direction.
In addition, according to Ibrohim, Tashkent and Dushanbe have signed a contract for the supply of 1.5 billion kWh of electricity from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan this year.
To date, Uzbekistan is one of the main suppliers of electricity for Afghanistan, where there is an acute shortage of electricity. Representatives of the Afghan side said earlier in the course of the talks that due to growing consumption they intend to further increase purchases of Uzbek energy.
Uzbekistan has been supplying electricity to Afghanistan since 2002 with annual direct contracts, taking into account the needs of the Afghan side. In 2002, the supply volume was only 62 million kWh. With each coming year this volume increased up to 200 million kWh. In 2018, a contract was signed for the supply of approximately two billion kWh of electricity.
In turn, Tajikistan supplied about 1.4 billion kWh of electricity to Afghanistan in 2017. This year, it is planned to increase this figure up to 1.5 billion kWh.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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