DUSHANBE, October 15, 2014, Asia-Plus -- The Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) is fully ready for peak load during autumn-winter period 2014-2015.

Pavel Lavrov, Director General of Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the station, made this remark at an international economic and business forum in Dushanbe on October 15.

According to him, the plant reduces Tajikistan’s power deficiencies during winter period by 30 percent.

“The Sangtuda-1 HPP is Tajikistan’s second largest power plant in terms of capacity and it now produces 12 percent of Tajikistan’s electricity,” Lavrov said, noting that the Sangtuda-1 HPP now generates up to 6 million kWh of electricity per day.

The Sangtuda-1 HPP is located on the Vakhsh River in Khatlon province, some 160 kilometers south of Dushanbe. The plant, consisting of four units with total capacity of 670 MW, was officially commissioned on July 31, 2009.

The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s.  By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.  The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.

Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant.  Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.

Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.