Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Oct. 22/ Trend corr. D.Azizov /
As a result of a government decree, Uzbekenergo State Joint Stock Company (SJSC) and the State Development Bank of China (SDBC) signed a loan agreement for $220 million to co-finance the modernisation of Tashkent's thermal power plant, it was stated on Monday.
According to the text of the decree on measures for the implementation of the construction of a combined cycle installation with a capacity of 370 MW at the Tashkent thermal power station' s investment project, a credit agreement between Uzbekenergo and SDBC was signed in August this year.
The financing scheme of project worth $ 511.859 million, also determined that apart from the SDBC loan, the project will be financed by a loan from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan (FRDU) amounting to $76.2 million , a commodity loan from Synecta (Slovakia) - $68.9 million, and Uzbekenergo equity - $ 117, 703 million, Uzbek Industrial Construction Bank (Uzpromstroybank) loan - $50 billion sums, or a $26.9 million equivalent loan and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation loan at $2.037 million.
Project participants are provided with a number of customs and tax benefits, along with permission to conduct building and construction works with the simultaneous development of construction documents till September 1 2013.
As previously reported, Uzbekistan is planning to modernise the Tashkent thermal power station to construct a combined cycle plant with a capacity of 370 MW. Previously, the project cost was defined to the sum of $468 million.
The contract on the engineering, procurement of equipment and construction of the combined cycle plant signed with a consortium of companies consisting of Synecta (Slovakia), Istroenergo Group (Slovakia) and SNC Lavalin Polska, Sp.zo.o. (Poland).
Uzbekistan announced its intention to modernise the Tashkent thermal power station more than 10 years ago.
In May 2002, a credit agreement on a loan for the project worth 24.955 billion yen was signed between the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Uzbekenergo and the Uzbek Ministry of Finance. The Uzbek side hasn't reported cancellation of the credit agreement.
Today, the installed capacity of the Tashkent thermal power station is 1.86 thousand MW. The first energy unit was commissioned in 1963 and the last, the 12th in 1971.
Some 45 power plants with total capacity of 12.4 thousand MW, including 16 power stations of Uzbekenergo with a total capacity of 12.04 thousand MW are currently operating in the Uzbek energy system. The share of institutional power stations does not exceed three per cent (362.5 MW).
The major share of electricity, up to 90 per cent, is produced by ten thermal power plants with total installed capacity of 10.6 million kW.
Some 29 hydropower plants with an installed capacity of 1.4 million kW are mostly combined in hydropower station cascades and work on a hydro watercourse.
According to official statistics, in 2011, Uzbekistan increased production of electricity up to 52.416 billion kilowatt-hours, by 1.3 per cent, compared to 2010.