On January 5, a number of thermal power plants in Uzbekistan experienced partial blackouts. The Ministry of Energy reported that the TPP's emergency control equipment was triggered due to unscheduled shutdowns on the power lines of the unified energy system connecting Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

The combined-cycle plants of the Turakurgan TPP (its load decreased from 750 to 500 MW), the Takhiatash TPP (from 280 to 150 MW), the Navoi TPP (from 450 to 230 MW), the Tashkent TPP (from 370 to 180 MW) and two CCGT units of Talimarjan TPP (with a total capacity of 900 MW) were automatically turned off. Power outages affected a number of regions.

Kazakhstan

The Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOS) reported that on January 5 at about 17:41 as a result of a power surge (a sharp increase in power due to a sudden increase in load or disconnection of a power system element) from the Unified Power System (UPS) of Central Asia (about 800 MW) the stability of the parallel operation of the North-South transit of the unified energy system (UES) of Kazakhstan was disrupted.

For this reason, three overhead lines of 500 kV and one 220 kV of the North-South transit of Kazakhstan were shut down by the automatic action to prevent damage to the equipment. As a result, the Southern zone of the UPS of Kazakhstan and the IES of Central Asia were allocated for isolated work with a decrease in frequency to 48.31 Hz.

According to operational data, the volume of restrictions on the Almaty, Zhambyl, Kyzylorda, Karaganda and Turkestan regions of Kazakhstan reached 959 MW.

“The source of the surge was the Uzbek power system, where two 450 MW combined cycle power plants were disconnected at the Talimarjan TPP, as well as a decrease in generation at a number of other power plants,” KEGOS said in a statement.

Kyrgyzstan

The report of the National Electricity Grid of Kyrgyzstan says that on January 5 at 17:43 the unified energy system of Central Asia was separated from the unified power system of the north of Kazakhstan.

“The frequency in the power system decreased until the automatic frequency unloading (AFR) was triggered. The reason was the surplus of electricity by the Uzbek energy system,” the message said.

At 17:59 the power transmission line-530 was included in the transit in the power system of Kazakhstan, and frequency regulation was removed from the Kyrgyz power system. At 18:15, power lines-532 and power lines-539 were included in transit, and the power supply to consumers disconnected from the ACR was restored, said the energy company of the neighboring country.