TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 9. Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, specializing in power generation, renewable energy and desalinated water, will invest approximately $1.6 billion for the construction of a wind power plant, a storage station for electricity, and power transmission lines in the Kungrad district of Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan region, Trend reports.
The first initiative involves the establishment of Kungrad Wind 1, a joint venture focused on constructing a 500 MW wind farm.
The second endeavor, Kungrad Wind 2, will see the creation of a joint venture dedicated to the storage and accumulation of electricity, boasting a capacity of 100 MW.
Lastly, the project presupposes the development of Kungrad Wind 3, a joint venture dedicated to constructing an overhead power transmission network in the Kungrad district of Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan region.
Saudi Arabian company will attract direct investments in the amount of $1 billion for the Kungrad Wind 1 project and $667 million for the implementation of each of the other two projects. In turn, Uzbekistan guarantees the purchase of electricity produced by the stations.
Earlier this month, Uzbekistan established new companies - Uzenergosotish, for single purchase and sale of electricity and National Electric Networks - for transportation and transit of electricity.
Uzenergosotish will conduct electricity export and import operations on the basis of contracts. At the initial stage, Uzenergosotish will purchase electricity from producers and sell it to territorial electric grid enterprises and large consumers at established tariffs.
At a later stage, electricity is planned to be sold through an online trading platform at open prices based on supply and demand.
Uzbekistan has produced 52.2 billion kWh of electricity from January through August 2023.
As per data provided by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy, the recorded number is 5.8 percent more than in the same period of 2022 (49.3 billion kWh). Over 13.06 billion kWh of electricity was supplied to the population in the reporting period, which is 18.4 percent more compared to the same period in 2022 (11.04 billion kWh).