“80% of the boilers, 75% of the pipes are outdated” – Minister lists problems in the heating system of apartment buildings

On October 19, at the “Government Hour” held in the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis, Sherzod Khidoyatov, Minister of Housing and Communal Services, provided information on the preparation of social sector facilities and apartment buildings in Uzbekistan for stable operation in the autumn-winter period.

Reportedly, today there are 1.3 million apartments in more than 36,600 apartment buildings in Uzbekistan. 52% of them (826 thousand households) are connected to heat supply, while 48% or 474 thousand households are not connected to centralized heat supply. That is, homemade ovens are used to heat without a draft with the help of electric heating devices.

In addition, 80% of 578 boiler rooms belonging to 20 heat enterprises are obsolete. 75% of the 4,000-kilometer pipelines (3,000 kilometers) have already been repaired.

According to the Ministry, centralized heating systems are available only in 5 regions of Uzbekistan. In particular, Navoi and Zarafshan cities (97%), Tashkent city (89%), Bukhara city (60%), and Tashkent region (32%) have also been supplied. In other regions, this service is almost not provided.

The system has the following main problems:

•  until 2018, the main and auxiliary equipment became obsolete because almost no modernization work was carried out in the system;
•  there is no automatic control;
•  there are supply interruptions when the air temperature drops;
•  calculations for heat are carried out through norms for the population;
•  thermal enterprises are operating at a constant loss;
•  the difference between the tariff and the cost increases the creditor indebtedness of enterprises;
•  due to low monthly salary, there is a shortage of specialists.

At the same time, certain works were carried out in the system.

In 2018-2021, 47 boiler houses and 78 km of heat networks were modernized and reconstructed in order to develop the heat supply system. As a result, 1,100 multi-apartment buildings with 54,000 apartments and 143 social facilities were provided with thermal energy. The level of provision of thermal energy increased by 4% to 52%.

In 2022, 12 projects will be implemented with a total of 1 trillion soums, in which 1,500 multi-apartment houses with 70,000 households and 113 social sector facilities will be provided with continuous and high-quality thermal energy by improving 24 boilers and 182 km of heat networks.