Azerbaijan, Baku, February 16 / Trend , V.Zhavoronkova/
Unifying energy systems of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan may be beneficial for Dushanbe, says Russian expert on Central Asia Leonid Gusev. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are considering the possibility of unifying their power systems, Kazakhstan's ambassador to Tajikistan Abutalip Ahmedov said to press conference in Dushanbe in the end of last week.
He expressed hope that the idle United Energy System (UES) of Central Asia is a temporary phenomenon.
"Regarding the proposal to establish a new Central Asian energy system, it is possible to say that it is profitable for Tajikistan," Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Studies of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Moscow State Institute of the International Relations, Gusev, told Trend via e-mail.
According to him, the power line from the Kyrgyzstan city of Osh to Tajik Khujand allow Tajikistan to become less dependent on Uzbekistan after relations strained between the countries.
"The border is still mined, and every year the price of gas is agreed with great difficulties, 100 percent of which Tajikistan receives from Uzbekistan," said Gusev. This gives an opportunity to Uzbekistan to influence on Tajikistan, the expert said.
Also, in his opinion, it should be noted that Tajikistan has for several years been trying to reduce its dependence on Uzbekistan.
Thus, from 2006 to 2009 Tajikistan has built two power lines: LEP-100 and LEP-500, and they were built with the help of China and connected the country with electric power system of China, said Gusev.
"Thus, Tajikistan is trying to improve its power condition and makes all possible for this," he said.
Speaking about the energy condition of Tajikistan, Gusev said that about 22 percent of total potential of coal reserves in Central Asia accumulated on country's territory. Most of the coal resources of the country is located in extreme nature conditions, he said.
Identified fields are characterized by considerable diversity of quality indicators and the limited capacity of their industrial development, and explored oil and gas resources are insufficient for domestic and communal consumption, said Gusev.
A special place in the composition of natural energy resources belongs to hydropower, which accounts for 80 percent of all energy resources of the country, the expert said.
Economically effective hydropower resources account for 85 billion kWh, making up 30 percent of all potential hydropower resources, and currently only 18 percent of economically viable hydropower is used.
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