Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan, a Central Asian state with diverse energy recourses, will build a new power line to the Afghan province of Baghlan, according to the Afghan energy company DABS, Uzbek media outlets reported.

The transmission line will pass from Surkhan region to Pul-e-Khumri in Afghanistan's Baghlan province and will transmit up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

This project was coordinated by representatives of the two countries on the sidelines of the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA), which was held in Ashgabat on November 14-15.

It is planned that the agreement on the construction of power transmission line (PTL) will be signed next week during the visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Uzbekistan.

Implementation of such energy projects will solve the problem of electricity shortage faced by Afghanistan, experts believe.

According to official data, the country consumes about 1,300 megawatts of electricity, most of which comes from Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

In 2009, PTL-220 for the transfer of electricity from Uzbekistan to Kabul with capacity of 150 mgW was commissioned in the suburb of Kabul at the Chantala substation.

Uzbekistan is the largest electricity producer in Central Asia. Total installed capacity of Uzbekistan’s power plants exceeds 12.4 GW. Twelve thermal power plants, with a combined capacity of over 10.7 GW, and 31 hydro power plants, with a combined capacity of 1.7 GW, belonging to the Uzbekenergo, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, the Mining and Metallurgical Company Almalyk and the Uzkhimprom Association, constitute the backbone of the electricity sector.

In Uzbekistan, the electricity is transmitted and distributed through power transmission lines whose voltage ranges between 0.4 and 500 kV and whose total length currently exceeds 243,000 km.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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