Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co. commissions first Dushanbe CHPP-2 power block
DUSHANBE. Jan 10 (Interfax) - The Chinese state company Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co., Ltd. (TBEA) put the first of two 100 mWt power generating units at the Dushanbe combined heat and power plant (CHPP) #2 into operation on Friday, the Tajik presidential press service said.
The CHPP is being built using an easy-terms $182.2 million credit extended by Eximbank of China. It is needed to ensure that the Tajik capital is supplied with sufficient heat and power.
"We plan to conduct negotiations with [our] Chinese partners over increasing the capacity of the Dushanbe CHPP-2 by 300 mWt [from the] 100 mWt there is now and the 100 mWt that will be commissioned before the end of the first half of 2014. If we can agree on price, in the future the capital's CHPPs will in aggregate generate 500 mWt of electric energy, enough for the capital's needs. In that event, the electric power Dushanbe now gets from hydroelectric power plants [HPPs] will be directed to the regions," the statement quotes Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon as saying.
Tajikistan is experiencing a shortage of electricity, which is estimated at 3-4 billion kWh per year. HPPs generate almost all the republic's power, meaning there is an excess in the summer, when water levels are high, and a shortfall in the winter, when they are not.
The power used by citizens is restricted to ten hours a day in the autumn, not just in the capital and five of the country's biggest cities. Three quarters of the eight million people living in the country live in rural areas. The limit is noticeable only in late spring, when HPP reservoirs have a sufficient amount of water.
"The achievement of energy independence remains one of the strategic goals of the republic's leadership," Rakhmon said during a ceremony marking the launch of the generating unit.
Tajikistan had been covering its power insufficiency with imported electricity from neighboring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, but with the latter's departure from the unified Central Asian energy system Tajikistan has not had this option for the last several years.
Tajikistan increased power generation 1.4% year-on-year to 15.65 billion kWh in January-November.
