Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
By Maxim Tsurkov - Trend:
Three major power plants will be commissioned in Azerbaijan in 2018, Energy Minister of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov said in an interview with Trend, adding that this will allow increasing the country's total generating capacity.
The minister stressed that to increase the country's generating capacity, it is planned to commission the Shimal-2 TPP with the capacity of 400 megawatts, the modular power plant Lerik with a capacity of 16.5 megawatts and the Ordubad HPP with the capacity of 36 MW in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and Azerbaijan's power generation capacity will grow by an additional 452.5 megawatts.
Shahbazov further reminded that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev set the task to complete the construction of the Shimal-2 TPP by the end of the year.
"Recently, we held discussions with Azerenerji OJSC and analyzed the current situation. We believe that the Shimal-2 TPP will be ready by the scheduled time," the minister said.
Shahbazov reminded that in accordance with President Ilham Aliyev's instructions given at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers devoted to the results of social and economic development in the first quarter of 2018 and the forthcoming tasks, the Ministry is currently working to forecast the domestic demand in 5-10 years taking into account the country's development, population growth and process of industrialization; determine the export potential based on the analysis of foreign energy markets and construct wind, solar and hydroelectric power stations based on the analysis of alternative and renewable energy sources.
Presently, the capacity of Azerbaijan's power system is more than 6,000 megawatts.
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