Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 14
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
In accordance with the Program of Social and Economic Development of Turkmenistan for 2018-2024, there are plans to increase the total amount of electricity produced in the country in the next seven years to 33 billion kilowatt-hours, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmenistan State News Agency.
Capacity building of the industry will further increase the exports of Turkmen electricity, primarily to Afghanistan.
The Imamnazar-Andkhoy, Serhetabat-Herat and Rabatkashan-Kalainau transmission lines already operate in this direction. The governments of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan signed memorandums of intent on the construction of transmission lines on the Kerki-Khamyap-Garkin route and the agreement on the project of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power line.
In particular, the last document defines the volumes of electricity that will be supplied to Afghanistan via a new power transmission line - 300 megawatts to Herat and Kandahar each (a total of 600 megawatts). In the future, there are plans to increase them to 1,000 megawatts.
Last year, an agreement was signed with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) concerning the financing of the construction of domestic power lines in the Ahal-Balkan and Balkan-Dashoguz direction.
"In this regard, it should be emphasized that the active connection of Turkmenistan to the single Central Asian energy system plays an important role in creating additional opportunities for significant increase in the volumes of Turkmen electricity supplies within the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TUTAP) international project," the report said.