BISHKEK (TCA) — There will be no power outages in Kyrgyzstan during the ongoing repair works at the Toktogul hydroelectric power plant, Prime Minister Temir Sariyev has said.
“If need be, we will consider electricity import from neighboring countries, but there will be no outages,” Sariyev said on Kyrgyz national radio on January 5, the governmental press service reported.
On December 28, three of the four generators were disconnected at the Toktogul HPP due to an oil leakage in cables. Those cables were installed 40 years ago and are still in use. It is difficult to replace them because such cables are not produced now.
Specialists plan to complete repair works at the power plant before January 15. In the meantime, the workload of the Toktogul HPP has been reduced and the workload on HPPs located downstream the Naryn River increased.
The prime minister said that repair works at the Toktogul HPP are going on at a high pace and there are sufficient reserves for uninterrupted power supply of the country’s population.
The Toktogul HPP, built in 1975, is the largest and most important power plant in Kyrgyzstan, generating up to 40 percent of all electricity in the country.
On January 5, the Economy Ministry of Kyrgyzstan said that Kyrgyzstan’s Electric Stations JSC has concluded an agreement with Kazakhstan’s Ekibastuz power plant on delivery of 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity at a price of 10.88 tenge per kWh.
Electricity import will start in case of need, the ministry said.
