Tag Archives: electricity

Tajikistan hands out $3.9b contract to build Rogun dam

DUSHANBE, JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan handed a $3.9bn contract to Italy’s Salini Impregilo to build the Rogun dam and hydroelectric power plant, a controversial project that sits at the heart of the country’s future energy production.

Salini Impregilo, Italy’s biggest construction company, said it had already received funding of $1.95b for the construction of a dam on the Vakhsh river, which will become the tallest in the world at 355m. A company spokesman said that work would start soon.

“The idea is to have two of the six turbines start producing energy for sale by 2018 in order to raise funding to complete the project,” the company said in a press release.

The Rogun dam project is controversial because it is opposed by down- stream Uzbekistan which worries that the complex will divert water away from its cotton fields. Environmentalists have also complained about the damage the dam will cause to the region’s lush valleys and human rights activists have exposed the forced eviction of thousands of people from the area.

Still, for Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, the Rogun dam has become one of his pet projects. In 2011, he received a major boost when the World Bank endorsed it in two feasibility projects.

Around 70% of Tajikistan’s energy production comes from hydroelectric power stations. Once Rogun comes online, Tajikistan could become a hub for the region. It already plans to export electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Salini Impregilo has built 250 dams worldwide and in August 2015 it won a $575m contract to build the Nenskra hydropower plant in Georgia.

The company said it will build six power stations atRogun, with a total capacity of 3,600MW, roughly equivalent to Tajikistan’s current capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Georgians protest against hydro

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Residents of Chuberi, a small village in Georgia’s north-western province of Svaneti, held rallies against the construction of the Nenskra hydropower plant, saying that it would negatively impact their livelihood. Activists said that the power plant will sit in a dangerously seismic region and its construction on the Svaneti river could trigger landslides. The Nenskra plant will cost $1b to build and will be the second largest hydropower plant in the country when it is completed in 2019.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Armenia’s power production drops

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Statistics Committee said that electricity production shrank by 1.9% in Jan.-May 2016 compared to the same period last year. Overall, the Metsamor nuclear power plant produced more than a third of Armenia’s 3.2b kWh output. Importantly, hydropower stations surpassed thermal power plants in their share of total electricity output for the first time.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Tajikistan hands out $3.9b contract to build Rogun

DUSHANBE, JULY 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan awarded a $3.9b contract to Italian construction company Salini Impregilo to build the controversial Rogun dam in the Pamir mountains.

The Soviet-era plan has been on hold for several years because of worries over its funding and opposition from Uzbekistan that it will siphon off water needed to irrigate its cotton fields.

The timing of the $3.9b deal for Salini Impregilo was unexpected and appears to suggest that the Rogun dam project is up and running once again.

Tajikistan needs the dam to boost electricity production. It suffers countless blackouts in winter, when there is less water generating hydropower, and has also committed itself to supplying both Pakistan and Afghanistan with power from 2018.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan wants to import electricity from Tajikistan

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan wants to import 1.5-2m kWh of electricity every day from Tajikistan over the summer, Aleksey Borodin, deputy director of National Electric Network, told local media, another sign that its power generating systems are not operating at their expected levels. In 2015, Kyrgyzstan imported 146m kWh from Tajikistan, before they halted trade because of the completion of theDatka-Kemin transmission line in Kyrgyzstan which was supposed to ensure the country’s energy independence.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Editorial: Tajik electricity production

JUNE 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon said that he wanted to triple Tajikistan’s power generation capacity to around 45b kWh/year by 2030.

This is a long-term projection, and plenty can happen over the next 14 years, especially in Tajikistan, but it is still an important one. It is important because it shows the impact that the World Bank sponsored CASA-1000 project is having on the aspirations of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan needs to boost its exports and electricity production, through its network of hydropower stations, has emerged as the only real way of doing this. Gold production, while increasing, is still low, hopes of an oil boom spurred by the discovery of Bokhtar field have fallen flat.

But CASA-1000 has encouraged positive talk of a boom in power generation in Tajikistan. It’s important, too, to credit Tajikistan, over Kyrgyzstan, of being hard-headed about power generation. It will supply the lion’s share of the power for the CASA-1000 project, which will send electricity across Afghanistan to Pakistan, and plans to boost its power generation capacity even further show that the potential is there for more.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Utility cost rise in Armenia

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s state regulator said it will consider a 5% reduction in the price it charges homes for electricity, currently in the 38.8 – 48.8dram range (8-10 cents), adding to the deflationary pressure in the economy. In April, Russia’s Gazprom agreed to apply a 9% discount to the gas it supplied to Armenia. Rising electricity costs for households had sparked a popular protest in the summer of 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Armenia to export electricity to Iran

JUNE 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s state-owned power distributor Electro Power Systems Operator said it will export around 1b kWh of electricity to Iran in 2016 from itsHradzan and Yerevan thermal power plants. Armenia and Iran have signed an agreement on the exchange of Iranian gas for Armenia’s electricity.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Azerbaijan’s electricity production falls

JUNE 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Statistics Committee said electricity production fell by 7% in the first five months of the year to 9.3b kWh, compared to the same period last year. Azerbaijan’s thermal power plants, which generate the bulk of electricity in the country, produced 10% less electricity than last year. Hydroelectric power plants increased production by 15%.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Tajik President sets power output goal

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon said electricity generation in his country will grow by three times by 2030. Mr Rakhmon set the power output goal at 45b kWh/year, compared to 17b kWh last year. In addition, Mr Rakhmon said the country’s export potential will grow to 10b kWh/year. Tajikistan is tasked with generating most of the electricity for the CASA-1000 power transmission line to Pakistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)