Tajikistan will soon connect itself to Central Asia’s unified energy system.
The unified system for energy distribution was created in 1960, when the systems of Uzbekistan, southern Kyrgyzstan, northern Tajikistan and southern Kazakhstan’s Shymkent junction were connected to work in parallel through 110- and 220-kV power lines. This system operated in isolation from the Soviet Union’s general scheme.
In 2003 Turkmenistan left the energy system, having decided that it was able to provide itself with electricity on its own. And in early November 2009, the entire southern part of the Tajik energy system was automatically de-energized due to a spontaneous shutdown of units at the Nurek HPP. Tajikistan and the south of Uzbekistan remained without electricity for a day. After that Uzbekistan announced its withdrawal from the energy “ring”.
After that Uzbekistan completely de-energized the lines connecting its energy system with the Tajik system. As a result, Tajikistan’s energy system automatically remained isolated from the rest of the region. Thus, the system ceased to exist as such in 2009, but was recreated again in 2019. Currently, it includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
