The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says it is providing more resources to increase the reliability and sustainability of electricity supply in Tajikistan by organising a financial facility of up to €31 million for national transmission network operator Shabaqahoi Intiqoli Barq (SIB).
The facility consists of two EBRD sovereign loans totalling up to €23 million and an investment grant of up to €8 million. The funds will help rehabilitate the existing transformer and construct a new one at the Sugd-500 substation in the north of the country. The project will also be supported by an investment grant of up to €2 million from the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund.
The northern Tajikistan power system depends on the 500 kV Sugd-Dushanbe high-voltage line connected to the Sugd-500 substation. Once upgraded and expanded, the substation will increase the sustainability of the electrical grid, which will be able to meet both growing domestic demand and demand for electricity exports. It will also help SIB integrate up to 700 MW of renewables in line with Tajikistan’s 2030 National Development Strategy aimed at diversification its energy production.
This undertaking builds on the success of the EBRD’s recently completed Sugd energy loss-reduction project, which demonstrated the effectiveness of modern metering and billing systems by reducing network losses in the region’s main city of Khujand from 27 per cent to 10 per cent and by improving payment collections to nearly 100 per cent.
Supported by grant funds from the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund and the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund, this project is expected to bring significant environmental benefits to the Sugd region, such as an annual reduction in CO2 emissions of 129,000 tonnes. It will also help to ensure the smooth introduction to the grid of pilot renewable energy projects in the Sugd region.
