Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Daler Juma on February 8 met in Moscow with Russian Minister of Energy Nikolai Shulginov.

According to the press center of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the parties discussed ongoing and forward-looking projects of companies of Russia’s fuel-energy complex in Tajikistan.

They, in particular, discussed operation of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) and the possibility of export of electricity generated by the hydropower plant in accordance with a government-to-government agreement signed between Tajikistan and Russia in 2009.  

Meanwhile, representatives of Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 HPP, note that the issue of increase in the supply of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP and independent export of it has repeatedly been raised at different levels.   

Recall, Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan national power utility company) is currently the monopoly buyer of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP.  

The Sangtuda-1 HPP, 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 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.