BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 25. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has put into operation the hydro unit number one of the Sarband hydroelectric power station (HPP) after reconstruction, Trend reports via the press service of the Tajik president.
According to the press service, the capacity of the unit after renovation and modernization is 39 MW. This is the last of the six units put into operation after the beginning of the HPP's reconstruction, all the rest have been put into operation in stages starting from 2018.
As the press service said, the average capacity of the HPP was 160 MW before the start of the renovation work, as a result of reconstruction it increased to 270 MW. Until April 20, 2023, the HPP generated over 3.1 billion kWh of electricity.
The Sarband HPP, located on the Vakhsh River in the south of Tajikistan, was put into temporary operation as part of the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power plants in 1962, and it was fully launched back in 1966.
A grant agreement for $136 million was signed between Tajikistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to reconstruct a hydroelectric power plant in 2013.
The project involved replacing five units, and two transformers, constructing a new administrative building, and reconstructing distribution equipment, among other works.
The first phase of the project was carried out by the Chinese Sinohydro company, while the consortium of Türkiye and Tajikistan's energy company Barqi Tojik implemented the second phase. The project also involved importing modern electrical equipment from Germany, Italy, India, China, and Kazakhstan.