Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said that Tajikistan’s accession to the unified energy system of Central Asia is expected by the end of May.

Tajikistan can join the unified energy system of Central Asia by the end of May. The Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, announced this during the Energy Week (UEW 2024) in Tashkent on 14 May, Gazeta.uz reports.

“We are developing interregional trade and interregional cooperation, we already cooperate very closely on the supply, export, import and transit of electricity with our neighbors - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan. This month we expect Tajikistan to also join our unified Central Asian energy network,” he said.

At the end of 2021, Tajikistan began to discuss the country’s return to the unified energy system of Central Asia. Minister of Industry and New Technologies Sherali Kabir stated that Tajikistan would return to the unified energy system in 2022, but this issue was postponed several times.

“We still plan to prepare the northern part [of Tajikistan’s energy system] for connection by the end of this year, but the actual launch of this line will be carried out in April 2024,” noted the Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan Daler Juma.

The United Energy System (UES) of Central Asia and Southern Kazakhstan was created in the 1970s. It was managed by the Coordination and Dispatch Center in Tashkent and made it possible to balance seasonal fluctuations in electricity demand and water needs during the irrigation period.

In winter, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan stored water in reservoirs and received electricity and energy resources (coal and natural gas) from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In the summer, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan sent water accumulated in winter to their regional neighbors for irrigation of farmland. Also in the summer, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan supplied the neighboring republics with electricity produced in excess volume.

Director of the Coordination and Dispatch Center “Energy” Hamidulla Shamsiev noted at the beginning of 2022 that Turkmenistan left the UES in 2003 on its own initiative, having found a sales market in the Iranian energy system, with which it is now working in parallel. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are working on so-called “island” schemes, allocating separate generators to the Uzbek side.

Tajikistan was at one time separated from parallel work due to repeated violations of the conditions of parallel work, and this was a joint decision made by the other participants of the Central Asian UES, Shamsiev pointed out. Now, with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank, work is underway to reconnect the energy system of Tajikistan to the Unified Energy System of Central Asia.

“The Tajik energy system has been independently regulating frequency all these years, which was facilitated by the large reserves available at its hydroelectric stations. It is almost impossible to solve this problem with thermal stations (as in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) or weak reserves at hydroelectric stations (as in Kyrgyzstan in recent years). That is why the joint operation of these energy systems in a single Central Asian ring is an urgent need to ensure reliable parallel operation of the energy systems of Central Asia, expanding mutually beneficial cooperation not only between them, but also with distant neighbors,” Shamsiev said.

As Asiaplustj.info notes, joint coordinated use of water and energy resources benefits all countries in the region.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will no longer face a shortage of electricity in the autumn-winter period, and Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan will not be left without water in the irrigation season.

Tajikistan will return to winter water storage (currently it accumulates water in the summer), and the country’s electricity needs will be covered by supplies from countries downstream of transboundary rivers.

In summer, Tajikistan will use the water accumulated in winter to meet the needs of its neighbors for irrigation water.