Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Feb. 5
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
Uzbekenergo State Joint Stock Company plans to set up a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) for service maintenance of Uzbekistan's thermal power plants, an Uzbekenergo representative said.
"MHPS and Uzbekenergo signed a memorandum of cooperation last week," the representative said. "It envisages the establishment of a joint venture rendering the maintenance services on the produced and supplied turbines."
The joint venture is expected to be established by the end of this year.
It was previously reported that Mitsubishi is a supplier of the combined-cycle plants as part of the modernization of two thermal power stations in Uzbekistan - Navoi and Tolimarjon.
In October 2012, Uzbekenergo completed construction of the combined cycle gas turbine at Navoi thermal power plant with a capacity of 478 megawatts and with the power generation of 3.4 billion kilowatt hours per year. The project cost was about $ 530 million.
The general contractor was the international consortium of Spanish Initec Energia and Turkish Calik Enerji. The supplier of the combined-cycle plant was Japanese Mitsubishi.
Uzbekistan started the expansion of Tolimarjon thermal power plant in 2013 by constructing two combined cycle plants. The project's cost totaled $1.28 billion.
Around $861.8 billion worth of contract for construction was signed with a South Korean consortium consisting of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. and Daewoo International.
Under the contract, the South Korean consortium will construct two combined cycle plants with the capacity of 450 megawatt each on a 'turnkey' basis. Mitsubishi is also the subcontractor for supplying combined cycle plants.
Currently, Uzbekenergo plans to implement the project for expansion of the Navoi thermal power plant by constructing another combined cycle plant with the capacity of 450 megawatt. A Japanese company is considered as an applicant for the equipment supply.
Currently, the installed capacity of Uzbekistan's power plants totals 12,400 megawatt, including Uzbekenergo - 12,000 megawatt.
The major part of the electricity in the country - up to 90 percent - is produced by 10 thermal power plants of Uzbekenergo with the total installed capacity of 10,600 megawatt.
Uzbekenergo state joint-stock company generated 55 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2014, which is 2.3 percent more than in 2013.
Edited by SI