Tajikistan reduces power supply to Afghanistan from 350 to 40MW

Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the country’s national power company, announced Monday that imported electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan has been reduced from 350 megawatts to 40 megawatts effective Tuesday.

In a statement released on Monday, DABS said the power has been reduced due to water shortages in Tajikistan.

However, DABS stated that an alternative had been found and that an additional 200 megawatts from Uzbekistan is being imported for Kabul and other provinces. DABS also said it was hoping to secure a further 200 megawatts as soon as possible.

“We faced the issue at 7am on Sunday, the electricity company was able to talk to Uzbekistan, and now we have provided 200 megawatts of electricity from Uzbekistan to Kabul,” Wahidullah Tawhidi, a spokesman for DABS said.

“Considering the domestic electricity, we have a total of 300 megawatts of electricity. We’re trying to get another 200 megawatts of electricity as soon as possible. The power in Kabul is relatively good right now,” he said.

According to DABS, electricity imported from Tajikistan serves Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Logar, Pakita, Khost, Parwan, Panjshir, Kapisa, Baghlan, and parts of Kunduz provinces.

Meanwhile, economists say that more needs to be done to boost the domestic energy sector, especially regarding renewable energy and the production of energy from natural resources such as natural gas.

 In November 2019, Bayat Power made history for Afghanistan when it successfully implemented the nation’s first 40-megawatt gas-powered Independent Power Producer (IPP) in over four decades using natural gas.

According to experts, Afghan Gas requires a lot of attention from the Afghan government in order to optimize its operations so as to sufficiently supply fuel for the 40MW power plant which is the only one of its kind in operation currently.

“If investments had been done on the electricity sector over the last decade, we would have become an exporter of electricity by now. I wish investors would successfully implement projects in the energy sector, similar to what Bayat Power did in Jawzjan and other provinces, lighting up thousands of homes,” an Afghan economist Hakimullah Sediqqi said. 

“The government should think about this. In the long run, we should see the opening of dams, the opening of solar power, and have plentiful natural gas reserves worth billions of dollars. We should be able to use these resources to solve our problems of poverty and unemployment,” said Salim Toofan, an economic expert. 

DABS meanwhile agreed that Afghanistan does have the means to produce power for the country. 

“There is the capacity of using solar, gas, and water energy to generate electricity in Afghanistan,” said Tawhidi.

“Currently, the solar system in Kandahar province generates 40 megawatts, and the hydroelectric power dam of Helmand also generates 100 megawatts of electrical power,” he said. 

However, noting private investors’ achievements in this sector, he said: “Bayat and Ghazanfar Groups have invested in power production utilizing natural gas in the northern part of the country, of which Bayat group’s electricity supply project is operational.” 

He said: “There are opportunities for the private sector to invest in energy supply, and the government is ready to cooperate with them.” 

The use of natural gas in energy production, specifically by Bayat Power – the first natural gas power plant in Afghanistan – has the potential to boost domestic energy production to 200MW as planned, provided Afghan Gas can deliver the much-needed fuel to operate the state of the art SGT-A45 Siemen’s turbines, which are the first to be deployed worldwide, in Afghanistan.