On January 6, the power ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan signed an settlement on the development of the Kambar-Ata-1 hydropower plant on the Naryn river in Kyrgyzstan.
Meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Energy Minister Taalaibek Ibraev, Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Aqsholaqov, and Uzbek Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamahmudov signed a roadmap for the development of the long-awaited dam, emphasizing that the challenge would profit all three nations.
Ibraev framed the challenge as offering a pathway to power safety for Kyrgyzstan.
“If we build the Kambar-Ata-1 hydroelectric power station together with neighboring countries, the shortage of electricity in our country will be eliminated,” he mentioned. The doc signed between the three ministers has been described as a “roadmap.”
“Preparations for the construction of the Kambar-Ata-1 hydroelectric power plant, construction of roads, bridges, power lines, construction sites are being prepared,” Ibraev mentioned.
Kambar-Ata-1 (additionally written as Kambarata-1) just isn’t a brand new proposal. Indeed, the primary such hydropower challenge on the web site was begun in 1986, however building fell sufferer to the Soviet collapse in 1991. By 2008, Russia had taken up the Kambar-Ata-1 challenge and the Upper Naryn Cascade challenge and pledged funding; nevertheless, little precise work was performed and by 2014 — particularly after Russia invaded Crimea — it grew to become clear that the tasks have been not a precedence for Moscow.
In late 2015, then-Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev was overtly questioning Russia’s dedication, saying in an end-of-year press convention: “I don’t like uncompleted construction projects, one should be realistic. We all see the state of the Russian economy, it is, shall we say, not on the rise, and for objective reasons, these agreements (on the construction of hydropower plants) can’t be implemented by the Russian party.”
Of course, the query then grew to become: If not Russia, who would fund this large challenge?
That element has not been fleshed out in reporting on the current roadmap signing, however this previous summer time, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov attended the marketed launch of building on the web site and introduced that 412.8 million Kyrgyz soms had been allotted from the price range for “research, feasibility study and other work.” He additionally mentioned that 1.5 billion soms had been allotted from the price range “in order to independently begin construction work at the facility.”
In essence, begin to construct it and so they (extra funding and companions, that’s) will come.
The challenge will embrace the development of a dam, estimated at 256 meters, and an influence plant with put in capability of 1,860 megawatts. According to 24.kg’s reporting, “The Kambarata HPP-1 will generate an average of 5.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity with a full reservoir volume of 5.4 billion cubic meters of water.”
In gentle of the roadmap signing with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, correct building is anticipated to now start by 2024 and the primary unit deliberate to be operational by 2028. Kambar-Ata-1 is however certainly one of a number of hydropower tasks alongside the Naryn river which have been steered or studied through the years.
A decade in the past, Uzbekistan was not a giant fan of the Kambar-Ata-1 challenge (simply because it was not so eager on Tajikistan’s Rogun dam) with the nation’s major issues being the risk to its water provides if dams have been constructed upstream and the specter of another power exporter within the area. But occasions have modified, each politically in Uzbekistan but in addition with regard to regional power provides. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have all lately suffered from appreciable power shortages, significantly in winter; they’d all profit from extra provides within the neighborhood.
All that mentioned, it’s nonetheless a protracted pathway forward. At the earliest, Kambar-Ata-1 would have the ability to begin producing electrical energy in 2028. The financing stays unclear, and such tasks will not be low-cost. Finally, as Central Asia’s glaciers proceed to shrink, the long-term worth of those large hydroelectric tasks might dwindle too.
Source web site: thediplomat.com
