President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on May 11 held a meeting on energy supply and introduction of renewable energy sources in Uzbekistan.
At the meeting it was said that this year a shortage of 3.4 billion kWh of electricity is expected, and daily demand during the hot summer days could increase from the current 195 million to 255 million kWh. Consumption is projected to rise by 16 million kWh in Andijan region, by 20 million kWh in Samarkand region, by 21 million kWh in Ferghana region, by 40 million kWh in Tashkent region and by 27 million kWh in Tashkent.
“If you have problems, you should speak up. The purpose of the conference call is to solve the problem,” the president said.
He said that the hokims of Andijan, Samarkand, Ferghana and Tashkent regions, as well as the acting hokim of Tashkent city, and the Energy Minister had not identified the sources that would meet the expected demand.
The presidential decree issued in February instructed the government to cover a 3.4 billion kWh power shortfall and to generate 5 billion kWh of additional electricity.
Hokims and Regional Electric Grid Company head Ulugbek Mustafayev have been ordered to repair 30,000 km of low-voltage power grids and 10,000 transformers by August 1.
Currently, Tashkent is undergoing a repair programme that has received 4.2 trillion soums in funding. So far, 667 km of networks and 175 transformers have been replaced out of the planned 900 km and 230 respectively. Five new substations are also expected to be built.
Regional hokims have been instructed to stockpile electrical equipment and materials and to allocate 10 billion soums for each region. Repair work planned for this year will be completed by August 1. For this, 320 additional teams and 10,000 qualified personnel will be created.
In order to avoid disruption in power supply, a task has been set to provide thermal power plants with 6 million cubic metres of additional gas and create a stock of fuel oil worth 200,000 tonnes by 1 June.
The President instructed to commission by July 1 (two months ahead of schedule) the first stage of the 500 MW power plant being built by ACWA Power in the Syrdarya region.
The head of state also outlined tasks for tightening state control in the fuel and energy sphere, for stopping illegal consumption of electricity and gas. To date, illegal use of energy resources worth 250 billion soums has been detected and the damages incurred have been recovered, the report said.
