The operating regimen of Uzbekistan’s thermal power plants and energy system has been fully restored, the Ministry of Energy said in a statement.

The commission formed to study the emergency situation that occurred on January 5 on the power lines of the unified power system of Central Asia has identified the cause of the failure.

According to the provisional data, due to the triggered technological protection, an unscheduled shutdown of steam-gas units of the Talimarjan TPP took place. “As a result, there was a surge in capacity on transit lines connecting the Unified Power System (UPS) of Central Asia with the Unified Energy System of Russia and Kazakhstan, which led to a disruption in the stability of the parallel operation of power systems,” the statement said.

“Emergency control system was activated on power lines, as a result, the power system of the Northern part of Kazakhstan was separated from the UPS of Central Asia. The frequency of the UPS of Central Asia dropped to 48.15 Hz. At the same time, a number of consumers were disconnected by automatic devices and the power units of thermal power plants were unloaded,” the Ministry of Energy added.

The ministry added that the triggered emergency response system "prevented the possibility of larger-scale problems and devastating consequences for power units."

“Based on the findings, measures are being planned to prevent such incidents,” the Ministry of Energy assured.