BISHKEK (TCA) — China’s State Power Investment Corporation plans to build a cascade consisting of four hydro electric power plants on the Naryn river near Kazarman in Kyrgyzstan’s Jalal-Abad province, the Kyrgyz governmental press service said after the meeting of Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Pankratov with the company’s representatives.
The total capacity of Alabuga, Toguz-Toro, and two Kara-Bulun hydro plants is planned to be 1.1 thousand MW with annual electricity generation of around 4.6 billion kilowatt-hours.
“The Chinese investors said they had thoroughly studied the potential and prospects of Kyrgyz hydro power sector and are ready to implement the project,” the press service said.
The Investment Promotion Agency under Kyrgyzstan’s Economy Ministry earlier said that the Kazarman cascade project could cost around $1.5 billion.
In January 2016, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev signed laws on denunciation of agreements between the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Russia on construction and operation of Kambarata-1 hydropower plant (HPP) and the Upper Naryn HPPs cascade in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Kyrgyz side, in 2015 the Russian partner in the project did not solve the issue of financing the project due to financial problems and did not find sources of funding for 2016, and the construction of four HPPs of the Naryn cascade had been postponed indefinitely.
It was planned to build the Naryn cascade within six years, and the first hydraulic unit of the main Naryn HPP-1 should have been put into operation in 2016.
The total capacity of the cascade should be at least 191 MW, with average annual electricity production of 1.55 billion kilowatt-hours. The project was estimated at $425 million in 2012, and it was increased to $727 million at the end of 2013.
