Uzbek minister to participate in ceremony of introducing the first unit of Roghun HPP into operation
By Trend
Uzbek Minister of Water Resources, Shavkat Hamrayev, will arrive in Tajikistan this week to participate in the ceremony of introducing the first unit of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) into operation, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview, news.tj repotrs.
High-ranking officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as senior representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations active in the country have also been invited to attend the ceremony.
Local media outlets and 30 foreign media outlets are expected to cover the ceremony.
The first unit of the Roghun HPP will be introduced into operation on November 16. The event will be attended by President Emomali Rahmon.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEWR), at the initial stage after being introduced into operation, the capacity of the first unit will be 100 MW and it will generate up to 350 million kWh of electricity per year.
The second unit of the Roghun hydropower plant is expected to be introduced into operation in April next year. The last sixth unit of the plant will be introduced into operation in 2028, when plant’s dam will reach the planned height.
Recall, specialists from Ukraine’s Dnipro-SGEM and Electrotyazhmash have installed the rotor of Unit 6, the first of the six future units of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
According to Dnipro-SGEM, the work on installing the rotor weighing 850 tons was completed on July 5. Unit 6 is reportedly expected to be introduced into operation on November 16, 2018 and Unit 5 is expected to be introduced into operation in 2019.
Tajikistan stemmed the flow of the Vakhsh River for construction of the Roghun HPP in late October 2016. Explosions were used on October 29, 2016 to block the main riverbed of the Vakhsh River, marking the first substantial step toward building the dam. The work on the Vakhsh River has not affected existing hydroelectric facilities downstream.
Roghun HPP is an embankment dam in the preliminary stages of construction on the Vakhsh River in southern Tajikistan. It is one of the planned hydroelectric power plants of Vakhsh Cascade.
The Roghun HPP was first proposed in 1959 and a technical scheme was developed by 1965. Construction began in 1976 but the project was frozen after the collapse of the Soviet Union.