Uzbekistan, Tashkent, April 5 / Trend D. Azizov /
Uzvodenergo association, structural unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Economy of Uzbekistan, announced a tender for the turnkey construction of Kamchik hydroelectric power station (HPS) at Ahangaran river in the Tashkent province with starting price of $34.1 million, the association said on Thursday.
According to the tender, the winner must implement before the end of 2014 the design, construction and supply of turnkey equipment for new HPS with a capacity of 18 MW and generation of 60 million kWh of electricity.
The bids will be accepted until May 5, the results of the competition will be known in the first half of this year.
Under the terms of the tender, in the case of competitive bid from the Uzbek bidder, the offer of a foreign supplier of equipment and services is estimated with additional charge VAT at a rate of 20 percent, the Uzvodenergo statement said.
Project worth $45.5 million is funded at the expense of Uzvodenergo own funds.
Uzbekistan has adopted a program of development of small hydro power for 2011-2015, providing for the implementation of nine projects worth $260 million.
As previously reported, the program envisages the construction of seven new and reconstruction of two existing small HPS in Tashkent and Surkhandarya provinces.
Implementation of the program will allow to increase the generating capacity from 394 MW in 2010 to 613 MW before the end of 2015, which will increase the production of electricity in small HPS from 1.115 billion kWh to 2.19 billion kWh for the period. In the course of construction of new capacity it is planned to achieve savings of natural gas in the amount of 685 million cubic meters annually.
Funding for the program will be implemented at the expense of Uzvodenergo received from the sale of electricity at existing HPS of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as foreign loans and borrowings of the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan.
Every year Uzbekistan produces about 50 billion kWh of electricity. The share of hydropower in the total production is about 10 percent.
At present, the power system of Uzbekistan includes 45 power plants with total capacity of about 12,400 MW, including 16 power plants of Uzbekenergo with a total capacity of 12,04o MW. The rest of the electricity is generated by autonomous thermal power stations of industrial enterprises and small HPS, belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Economy.
According to official statistics, Uzbekistan in 2011 increased production of electricity by 1.3 percent, compared to 2010 - up to 52.416 billion kilowatt-hours.