The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a grant of $35 million to re-connect the electricity system of Tajikistan with the Central Asian Energy System (CAEC).
This will help expand regional energy trade and improve energy efficiency between the CAEC countries, according to the ADB press release.
The interconnected energy system in Central Asia will benefit all countries, optimize energy use, increase regional energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Yuki Inoue, an ADB financial specialist, said that this project would allow Tajikistan to export summer surplus of electricity to Uzbekistan and to ensure more efficient use of regional energy resources. Reconnection is an important step in ensuring full parallel operation with the power system of Uzbekistan and CAEC, he added.
The ADB project will install and upgrade modern relay protection equipment to synchronize the power systems of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, expand the points of interconnection and strengthen the capacity of Tajikistan for stable parallel operation.
The total cost of the project is $40 million, while the government of Tajikistan is expected to allocate $5 million. The project will be completed in 2022.
CAEC is a regional power transmission network established in the era of the Soviet Union, and its activities today are coordinated between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In recent decades, the exchange of energy within the framework of the CAEC has gradually decreased, and the disconnection of Tajikistan from Uzbekistan in 2009 limited the effectiveness of CAEC. The signing of an electricity trade agreement for the resumption of electricity trade between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in March of this year is a step forward for the resumption of the regional energy network. (AzerNews/Business World Magazine)