The Russian power company Inter RAO may begin supplying electricity to Uzbekistan in the fall, TASS reported with reference to Alexandra Panina, a member of the board and chairman of the company's supervisory board.
“We need Russian electricity, it will be needed by autumn. And I think that by the fall, Kazakhstan’s plans will be more concrete on what volumes it could transit through to the Uzbek power system,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
In February, an executive of Inter RAO (the only operator of import-export of electricity in Russia) spoke about exploring the possibility of exporting electricity to Uzbekistan.
“The problem is that it needs to be delivered in transit through Kazakhstan, through the locked North-South section, through which supplies are already going to Kyrgyzstan, it is difficult to allocate volumes to Uzbekistan,” said Alexandra Panina.
During President Vladimir Putin's visit to Tashkent, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said that Russia and Uzbekistan were conducting active negotiations on a significant increase in supplies of not only gas, but also electricity. Volumes are still the subject of negotiations.
Meanwhile, in May, the Minister of Energy, Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov, in an interview with Uzreport TV, announced a cut in the country’s electricity imports by a quarter - from 4 to 3 billion kWh. According to him, the launch of solar and wind power plants and increasing the efficiency of thermal power plants made it possible to cover the deficit and open up prospects for energy exports (supplies of “green” energy to Europe are planned).
Currently, Uzbekistan imports electricity from Turkmenistan and in the summer from Kyrgyzstan.
