DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Afghanistan has signed an electricity supply deal with Uzbekistan which is 10% larger than last year to meet rising demand, a source at the state- owned Uzbekenergo told Russian media. Uzbekistan is an important supplier of electricity to northern Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Water and Power (GWP) said it has started construction of a new hydropower plant near Tbilisi, part of a broader investment package designed to boost Georgia’s electricity generating capacity.
The Saguramo hydropower plant will cost 10.5m lari ($4.38m) to build and be operational by the end of 2016.
Importantly, it will feed its electricity straight into the Tbilisi power system.
And the timing of the start of construction at the Saguramo 4.4 megawatt plant was pertinent.
Only a couple of days earlier, Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze told media that he wanted to see a united energy market in the South Caucasus.
Georgia is deficient in energy and is currently negotiating with Russia to import more gas.
It has unveiled a large hydropower investment plan which at its centre has the much-delayed Nenskra dam in the northwest of Georgia. Nenskra will have a power generating capacity of 280 megawatts and cost $1b to build.
But Mr Kaladze appeared to suggest that he wanted to hedge his bets and develop a pan-South Caucasus energy market that also included Turkey and Russia.
“Taking into account existing and future projects, it is possible to connect the energy system of the South Caucasus and Georgia will be an energy bridge, ensuring the growth of exchange and trading of electricity,” he said.
So far, though, there has been a less than ecstatic response from the rest of the region, unsurprisingly given the fraught nature of most of the neighbours’ relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s public utilities company Barqi Tojik said it had stopped exporting electricity to Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan because of a seasonal shortage of supply, showing the weakness of Tajikistan’s power generating infrastructure.
The decision to halt exports also poses major questions over Tajikistan’s plans to become a regional power exporter. Only last week, foreign ministers from the countries involved in the CASA-1000 project signed a final agreement in Istanbul which should power the project forward.
The CASA-1000 project will link Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan, which is short in power, via Afghanistan.
The export cut by Barqi Tojik is a routine measure to satisfy domestic demand during the peak winter season but the company said hydro-power plants suffered from lower- than-normal production this year.
“Water levels are today roughly 10% lower than last year,” said Barqi Tojik in a statement on Dec. 8.
For CASA-1000 to be a success, Tajikistan needs to build more hydropower capacity.
Shutting off power supplies to Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan during the winter months highlights this issue.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan once again formally complained to the OSCE, Europe’s security and democracy watchdog, about plans by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to build new dams on the upstream river system
The complaint is a reminder of Uzbekistan’s opposition to hydro- power development in Central Asia’s upstream water system.
The Tajik and Kyrgyz governments see building new dams and hydro- power systems as essential for their countries’ development, and specific to meeting new power demands from Pakistan who they will serve through the CASA-1000 project. Uzbekistan sees the hydro- power systems as a threat to its cotton industry and agriculture.
CASA-1000 is the $1b World Bank- backed project for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to generate electricity to export to Pakistan, via Afghanistan. This project hinges on a series of new dams being built in Tajikistan, including the Rogun Dam on the Vakhsh River, part of the wider Amu Darya system.
Relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have become so strained in the past over the issue that at times it has threatened to destabilise the region.
With the final deal on CASA-1000 signed in Istanbul earlier this month, relations between Uzbekistan and its upstream neighbours are likely to become more strained, as this latest complaint appears to forewarn.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and Uzbekistan plan to hold bilateral foreign ministry level talks in Dushanbe for the first time on Dec. 17/18, a step towards improving relations. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been locked in a row over water. Tajikistan wants to build what would be one of the world’s largest hyrdopower dams. Uzbekistan has complained that the dam will reduce water flow to its fields of cotton.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government has signed a decree that will allow people and small businesses to sell electricity they generate via solar panels to the state for the first time, media reported.
Potentially this edict is a small scale way of giving private entrepre- neurship a boost. As the website norma.uz reported earlier this year, there are a number of small businesses producing solar power electricity in Uzbekistan.
With its long, hot, cloudless summers, Uzbekistan is ripe for solar power.
Earlier this year, Uzbekistan launched a $700m project to build three solar panel farms to generate electricity.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking to boost power production to meet rising demand, the Uzbek authorities unveiled a $900m upgrade programme for its hydropower stations. As populations increase and living standards rise, demand for power has risen across Central Asia and the South Caucasus pressuring the authorities into investing in their power generation infrastructure. Earlier this month the Uzbek government announced a privatisation plan that included one of its cement makers.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Official media in Uzbekistan reported that President Islam Karimov has signed a resolution to begin a $16.6 investment programme running in 2016 and 2017. The main focus of the programme is to upgrade and modernise the country’s technology and energy sectors. Projects include part of a gas pipeline to China and the construction of both a petro-chemical plant and a thermal power station.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip that also took in neighbouring Uzbekistan, Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif visited Dushanbe for a meeting with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon that would have focused on the CASA-1000 energy project. CASA-1000 aims to turn Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan into power exporters, sending electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia wants to increase exports of electricity, natural resources minister, Levon Shahverdyan, said, more evidence that it wants to become a region energy exporter. Iran and Georgia are both dealing with power shortages.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)