Media: There is a risk of blackout in Uzbekistan

On November 12, 2022, a letter sent by the director of the state unitary enterprise “National Dispatch Center” under the Ministry of Energy to the heads of all regional power grid enterprises, the chairman of the board of “Territorial Electric Networks” JSC, the Ministry of Energy and “Uzenergoinspektsiya” was circulated on social networks. In it, it was reported that from November 9, 2022, a critical situation related to the fuel supply of thermal power stations of the energy system has arisen.

According to the letter, on November 12, a total of 350,000 cubic meters per hour (equivalent to 1,200 MW of electricity), including 270,000 cubic meters per hour less gas than planned, was supplied to the power stations on November 12. 50,000 cubic meters of natural gas was delivered to Tashkent TPP, and at the station, in order to prevent the technological parameters of power units from falling below the standard parameters and damage to equipment, steam-gas plant No. 1 (360 MW) and two power units were stopped.

“Total electricity production at the station has dropped to 500 MW (600 MW less than the planned) due to the burning of crude oil. In order to ensure the balance of electricity and to prevent the occurrence of major emergencies (blackouts) in the energy system, and due to the ineffectiveness of the restrictions introduced by the district power supply companies from 6.10 kV networks, the “National Dispatch Center” SUE switched off the high-voltage networks according to a special schedule, and the consumption of electricity was reduced.

In order to prevent serious accidents in the system caused by an emergency situation and to eliminate irregular interruptions in the supply of consumers, starting from November 12 until there is a separate assignment, you are asked to strictly fulfill the hourly electricity consumption assignment given by the “National Dispatch Center” SUE.

“Failure to fulfill the tasks given by the regional and territorial units of the “National Dispatch Center” to reduce the electricity to the required values may cause accidents with major consequences in the unified electric power system of Central Asia due to the fault of the energy system of Uzbekistan,” the letter of SUE reads.

Kun.uz source in the Ministry of Energy confirmed the correctness of this information and a difficult situation related to the fuel supply of thermal power plants.

In recent days, power outages have increased in many regions of Uzbekistan.

The Ministry of Energy, in its explanation of the restrictions on electricity and gas supply, also noted that less than the specified volumes of natural gas are reaching some thermal power plants that produce electricity, which, in turn, leads to a decrease in the volume of electricity production.