MARCH 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik hydropower company Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the 670MW Sangtuda plant on the Vakhsh river, said Barqi Tojik, the national power company, owes it 562m somoni ($71m) for electricity. Russia’s state-owned Inter RAO owns 75% of Sangtudinskaya GES-1. Tajikistan’s energy ministry owns the remaining 25% of the company.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkey’s Calik Holding said it wants to build a combined-cycle thermal, wind and hydropower station and a gas storage facility in Georgia. Calik’s chairman Ahmet Calik and Georgia’s PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili met in Tbilisi and discussed Calik’s plans in Georgia. Calik has already built a 220 MW combined-cycle power plant in Gardabani, 40km south of Tbilisi.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan officials said the new 146km Yoloten-Tahtabazar power transmission line to Afghanistan has started operations, reinforcing another electricity supply route into South Asia from Central Asia. Turkmenistan produced 22.5b kWh in 2015 and it is looking to increase both production and export.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s electricity production grew by almost 9% in February compared to the same period last year, pushed up again by the proliferation of small hydropower stations. For the first two months of 2016, electricity generation grew by 7% to 1.3b kWh. The Metsamor nuclear power plant accounted for 42% of the total power generation in the country. Power generation has become big business in the South Caucasus, with countries trying to meet a jump in demand.
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(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)
MARCH 17 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity company Samruk Energo said it resumed deliveries of electricity to Russia after cross-border trade was suspended in November 2014 due to the sharp depreciation of the rouble against the tenge.
Over the past six months the tenge has lost around 50% of its value, bringing it into equilibrium with the rouble and making cross-border trade viable again. Kazakhstan had stubbornly stuck to a US dollar peg despite a fall in global oil prices and a recession in Russia. It ditched this peg in August.
These electricity trades are important as they are more evidence of a normalisation of trade ties between Kazakhstan and Russia after a series of rows last year which, at their root, were triggered by the currency imbalance. Power supply contracts between Samruk Energo and Inter RAO are denominated in roubles which hit their value for Samruk Energo when the rouble fell heavily against the tenge.
Samruk Energo said it wants to export 1.8b kWh to Russia in 2016, slightly less than it exported in 2014. In 2013 power exports to Russia had been around 2.5b kWh.
The two power stations at Ekibas- tuz, in north-eastern Kazakhstan, will provide the electricity and Samruk Energo said the second unit at Eki- bastuz was also put into operation.
“Free capacity at Ekibastuz GRES- 1 and GRES-2 was allocated to export deliveries,” Almassadam Satkaliyev, Samruk Energo chairman, said in a statement.
The first unit is owned by Samruk Energo and Ekibastuz Holding, controlled by Kazakhmys.
GRES-2, the second unit at Eki- bastuz, is jointly owned by Samruk Energo and Russia’s Inter RAO.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz PM Temir Sariyev said that 16 new hydropower stations would be built for a total of $160m, adding 188MW of power to the national grid. This is important as Kyrgyzstan is committed to boosting its power output to hit domestic demand and also to feed the CASA-1000 project which will send electricity to Pakistan via Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bakyt Torobayev, a Kyrgyz opposition MP, said that a drop in electricity consumption across the country proved that Kyrgyzstan’s economy was failing. He said that electricity consumption in Kyrgyzstan had halved in the past year. Reports from Kyrgyzstan have said that many industries are struggling to cope with the sharp downturn in the economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s overall electricity production was 5.2% higher in January compared to January 2015, mostly due to the sharp increase in hydropower generation.
While traditional sources of power such as thermal and nuclear increased only marginally, production from hydropower and small hydropower stations grew by 23.7%, according to Armenia’s Statistics Committee.
Small hydroelectric plants, in particular, have heavily increased their contribution to Armenia’s total power output.
Small hydropower plants are defined in Armenia as power plants that generate up to 30 MW. In Armenia there are now 173 small hydropower plants, more than twice as many as there were in 2010 and six times more than in 1991. Today, they account for around 9% of the country’s power generation.
Individual entrepreneurs, including many people linked to government officials and ministers, have driven the rise in these small hydro- power stations, building along rivers and generating power which links straight into the national grid.
But while the government has welcomed the rise in small hydro- power stations, anti-corruption campaigners have linked them to money laundering and corruption and environmentalists have said that they are damaging rivers’ eco-systems and creating eye-sores.
“Critics say the plants already in operation are sucking up most of the water in the river system, destroying traditional trout fisheries and depriving area residents of reliable access to water,” Kristine Aghalaryan said in report in the Hetq newspaper.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data from Armenia has shown that small hydro power stations now generate a significant amount of the country’s power.
Of course this could be a good thing, reducing Armenia’s dependency on its aging nuclear power station. It also needs to be viewed with a degree of concern.
Many of these power stations actually do more harm than good to the environment. They are often built in fragile parts of the eco-system without much, if any, planning. They can damage and harm the environment.
And there is a whiff of corruption surrounding them or at least nepotism. Many of these small hydro-power stations are owned or linked to, members of parliament and even government.
Armenia needs to impose proper oversight on the sector, building up trust in its intentions. If it is properly regulated, small hydro-power stations could be a benefit to the environment and to ordinary Armenians. If it isn’t, it’ll be a blight on the environment and on the country’s governance reputation.
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(Editorial from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – General Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s military chief, made his first trip to Tajikistan, pledging his full support for defeating terrorism in the region. This is important as it shows the growing bonds between Central and South Asia. Tajikistan is part of the CASA-1000 plan to generate electricity in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan which is then exported to Pakistan, via Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)