JUNE 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – New York-based ContourGlobal bought Armenia’s largest hydro-electric complex for $250m, media reported, the first major investment by a Western company in the Armenian energy sector. Russian companies dominate Armenia’s power generation sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
JUNE 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif flew to Dushanbe for talks with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon, his first visit to Tajikistan since the neighbours agreed an electricity supply deal earlier this year.
At this meeting the two leaders agreed to speed up building the infrastructure needed for Tajikistan to send electricity generated from its hydropower stations to Pakistan under the CASA-1000 deal.
Importantly they agreed to improve communication and links.
This is important. International organisations as well as Western states have supported the CASA-1000 deal. They want electricity sent to Pakistan improved as well as cash flowing into Tajikistan’s economy.
They also want to encourage deeper relations between countries, including between Tajikistan and Pakistan.
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Turkish infrastructure company has agreed to fund construction of a new hydro- power dam in Georgia, media reported.
The agreement boosts Georgia- Turkey relations and will also strengthen electricity generation in the country.
Anadolu Tasit Ticaret will spend $80m on building the 51-megawatt Khedula-3 hydro- power plant in the Svaneti region in the Caucasus mountains.
Georgia’s government is a major proponent of developing hydropower and energy minister Kakha Kaladze said that this new development was just part of an ongoing process to boost the sector.
“This is being done for our people and for our country. This is being done for Georgia to be an energy independent country, he said. But it’s not without its controversies.
Hydropower currently produces around 85% of Georgia’s power but with economic and industrial development demand rising, so is demand for power. The tension lies between those who want to develop hydropower, which often means smashing through pristine mountain valleys and destroying villages, and those who want to protect the environment.
The government is still to make a final decision about one of the most controversial hydro- power projects in Georgia, the proposed 200m high dam at Khudoni.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a ceremony in Istanbul, Tajik, Pakistani and Afghan officials signed a deal that will mean electricity generated in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains will power households in Islamabad.
The CASA-1000 project should generate income for Dushanbe from its hydro-stations and for Kabul as a transit country while plugging a shortfall in electricity in Pakistan.
As well as an economic success, the $1.2b project is seen as a diplomatic highlight by the United States which is keen to involve Central Asian countries in trade deals with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It sees this as a way to foster stability once it withdraws its forces.
Richard Hoagland, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia, said: “We’ve already seen the efficacy of such an approach in the successes of the CASA-1000 energy project, which brought together a grouping of countries that had never before worked together on a development project.”
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan plans to tackle a lack of electricity by building small hydropower plants in different parts of the country over the next few years, media quoted industry minister Batyrkul Baetov as saying. One of Kyrgyzstan’s few natural resources is water.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
MARCH 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia will build a hydropower station with a $250m loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which will boost electricity production in winter and allow it to export power to neighbouring Turkey. Demand for power in Georgia is increasing.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
JAN. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s electricity exports to Afghanistan increased by 38% last year compared to 2013, the Tajik news agency Avesta reported. This is important because hydroelectric power has the potential to become one of Tajikistan’s biggest exports. It needs a stable Afghanistan and Pakistan to realise this potential.
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(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
NOV. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan has invited companies to compete in a tender to build two hydropower stations, hydroworld.com, the industry new website, reported. The projects, supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), highlight how important hydropower is to Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under a deal thrashed out last month, Kazakhstan started supplying Kyrgyzstan with electricity, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has been desperate to secure electricity because of a dry summer that has left reservoirs feeding hydropower sites low on water.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov made a rare trip to Astana where he met Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss plans by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to build extra hydropower capacity, an issue that has threatened to destabilise the region. Uzbekistan relies on water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to feed its important cotton fields.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)