The Asian Development Bank has approved an additional $15 million grant for Tajikistan to expand a project to reconnect the country’s power grid to the Central Asian grid through an interconnection with Uzbekistan.
The additional financing will support the construction of a new 22-kilometer (14.5-mile) 500-kV transmission line in northern Tajikistan, between the Sughd substation and the New Syrdarya substation in Uzbekistan.
This will help increase capacity for exporting and importing electricity between the countries of the Central Asian Power System, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and strengthen infrastructure to prevent grid disruptions, the ADB said.
The project will also ensure the readiness of Tajikistan’s power system to provide power and frequency regulation services to smoothly integrate renewable energy in the region, the ADB said. In the long term, it is expected to be a key component of the Rogun hydropower transmission scheme in Tajikistan.
Tajikistan returned to the unified energy system of Central Asia in 2024. The goal is to improve the joint coordinated use of water and energy resources by all countries in the region.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will no longer face electricity shortages in the autumn-winter period, and Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan will not be left without water during the irrigation season.
Tajikistan will return to winter water accumulation (previously it accumulated water in the summer), and the country's electricity needs will be covered by supplies from the downstream countries of transboundary rivers.
In the summer, Tajikistan will meet the needs of its neighbors for irrigation water using the water accumulated in the winter.
