Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Jan. 9 / Trend D.Azizov /
Uzvodenergo under the Uzbek Agriculture and Water Management Ministry commissioned two small hydro power stations (HPS) Ahangaran ( the Tashkent region) and Andijan ( the Adijan region) cost 16.9 $million, the ministry reported.
Initially the country expected to launch the HPSs in 2008. However, the construction schedule was changed due to financial and technical problems.
In 2007, the China National Electric Equipment Corp (CNEEC) and the Uzbek Agriculture and Water Management Ministry signed an agreement on construction of the Ahangaran and Andijan small hydro power stations with a capacity of 50 and 21 megawatts, respectively.
Based on the contract, the Chinese side supplied equipment and carried out assembly of two power-generating the HPSs.
CNEEC supplied equipment on turnkey basis, while the ministry's divisions carried out construction-assembly work.
The project was financed by the Chinese Eximabank's loan for $15.93 million, issued under warranty of the Uzbek government, as well as by Uzvodenergo's own resources and Uzbek state budget.
The designed capacity of the Andijan small HPS is 171.1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and the Ahangaran small HPS is 66.5 million kilowatt-hour of electricity.
Under the program on development of small hydropower by 2010, Uzbekistan planned to build 15 hydropower plants with total capacity of 423 MW and elaboration of 1.36 billion kWh of electricity per year.
So far, the country realized only two projects entering the program. In 2003, Uzbekistan commissioned the Urgut HPS (the Samarqand region) with a capacity of three megawatts. The HPS can produce 12 million kWh of electricity per year.
In 2006, the country launched two power generating units at the Tupolangsk HPS (the Surkhandarya region) with a capacity of 15 MW each. The loaded units may cumulatively produce 63 million kWh of electricity per year.
Based on the experts' estimates, Uzbekistan has dozens of reservoirs, irrigation canals and mountain rivers, where the country can build 141 power plants with total capacity of 1.180 MW and annual power generation at 4.6 billion kWh
Uzbekistan produces about 48 billion kWh of electricity per year. The share of hydropower in total electricity generation is about 10 percent.
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