The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved additional grant financing of $15 million to help Tajikistan scale up an ongoing project to reconnect the country’s power system to the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) through interconnections with neighboring Uzbekistan, says press release issued by the ADB Tajikistan Resident Mission (TJRM) on October 8.  

“Through the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program, ADB actively promotes regional power trade among countries in Central Asia and beyond,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov.  “Our support improves the sustainability of the regional power system and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region.”

The additional financing will construct a new 22 kilometer, 500-kilovolt transmission line in northern Tajikistan – between the country’s Sughd substation and the New Syrdarya substation in Uzbekistan.  It will scale up the transmission capacity for power exports and imports among CAPS countries, which include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and strengthen infrastructure to prevent grid failures which lead to blackouts.

The project will also help ensure Tajikistan’s power system is ready to provide regulating capacity for the smooth integration of renewable energy in the region. In the long term, it will become a key component of the power evacuation scheme for the Roghun hydropower plant in Tajikistan.

Tajikistan joined ADB in 1998.  For 26 years, ADB has supported a wide range of sectors from strategic road and energy infrastructure to health, education, agriculture, urban development, public sector management and finance for a total of over US$2.7 billion in assistance – including over US$2.1 billion in grants.

Established in 1966, the Asian Development Bank is owned by 69 members—49 from the region.