Emergency shutdown occurred at Turakurgan thermal power plant in Namangan province, the Ministry of Energy said. Reportedly, unidentified persons carried out land work without appropriate approval, which resulted in the damage of Uztransgaz’s main gas pipeline line.
This pipeline provided fuel for the TPP, and the incident led to a forced emergency shutdown of the power plant, the ministry said.
“Currently, all measures are being taken to eliminate problems, as well as to connect backup capacities for power supply. Given the need for a certain time to connect backup units at other power plants, some cases of power outages may be observed in the provinces, ”the message says.
The damage to the pipeline is under investigation.
Turakurgan TPP was built by a consortium of Japanese Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems and has two combined cycle plants with a capacity of 450 MW each. Since November 2019, it has been operating at full capacity and provides the main need for electricity in the Ferghana Valley.
In November 2020, at a thermal power plant in the Turakurgan district of Namangan province, both power units were also shut down in an emergency. The Ministry of Energy then attributed this to a sharp drop in temperature. As a result, restrictions were imposed on the supply of electricity in Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Kashkadarya provinces.
