The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted an additional $15 million to support Tajikistan in enhancing an existing initiative to reconnect the country’s power system to the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) via interconnections with neighbouring Uzbekistan.Â
“Through the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program, ADB actively promotes regional power trade among countries in Central Asia and beyond,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov. Â
He added, “Our support improves the sustainability of the regional power system and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region.”
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The additional funding will be used to build a new 22-kilometer, 500-kilovolt transmission line in northern Tajikistan, linking the Sughd substation with the New Syrdarya substation in Uzbekistan.
This project aims to enhance the transmission capacity for electricity exports and imports among the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) countries, which include Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Â
It will also strengthen the infrastructure to mitigate grid failures resulting in blackouts.Â
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Moreover, the initiative will prepare Tajikistan’s power system to provide regulating capacity, facilitating the smooth integration of renewable energy in the region.
In the long run, this transmission line will be a vital element of the power evacuation strategy for the Rogun hydropower plant in Tajikistan.
Tajikistan became a member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1998. Over the past 26 years, ADB has provided over $2.7 billion in assistance across various sectors, including transportation, energy, health, education, agriculture, urban development, public sector management, and finance, with more than $2.1 billion in grants.