Afghanistan is on track to increase its electricity imports from Turkmenistan significantly. According to a spokesman from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water, Matiullah Abid, the 500-kilovolt Arghandi substation is expected to be completed in the next two months.
Once the substation is completed, this project and other lines will allow Afghanistan to import up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity from Turkmenistan, alleviating the country’s chronic electricity shortage.
Abid emphasized the rapid progress being made on the construction. Once the building phase is finished, electrical equipment installation will begin.
According to the Afghan publication TOLOnews, the total cost of this project is $183 million, and it will be completed within two years.
Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Energy and Water, Abdul Latif Mansoor, stated that officials from the company investing in the Arghandi substation project emphasized that creating investment facilities is crucial for increasing the country’s energy production capacity.
In January of this year, the electricity company “Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat” (DABS) signed a contract with Turkmenistan to supply 1.8 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity to Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the electricity supply price from Turkmenistan is low.
