It became known that the clause on the development of a healthy competitive environment in the energy sector in the 2022 state program has not been fulfilled. Senators asked the Ministry of Energy about the problems of the population due to lack of electricity and what is being done in this regard. It is reported that amendments are being made to the laws on electricity and natural gas.
On November 18, at the 35th plenary session of the Senate, Senator Makhmud Parpiyev asked the Ministry of Energy about the electricity problem that is bothering people. According to him, the task of providing equal opportunities to all participants in the energy sector and introducing transparent price formation mechanisms in the 2022 state program has not been fulfilled.
“When we are in the regions, we must openly admit that with the onset of cold weather, insufficient supply of energy, power outages for hours, lack of gas cause dissatisfaction among the population. Queues at gas stations are very long. We should not turn a blind eye to this, in the past 9 months we have created thousands of jobs, 90% of the work of business entities in our Republic is related to electricity. If there is not enough energy, there will be obstacles to the activity of entrepreneurs,” the senator said.
He added that the task of accelerating the transformation processes in the energy system in clauses 73 and 74 was also set, and asked the representative of the Ministry of Energy what is being done about the situation.
In response to the question, Deputy Minister of Energy Sherzod Khodjayev said that, a new version of Uzbekistan’s energy sector laws is being developed with the participation of ADB and the World Bank involving more than 20 foreign experts and influential consulting companies.
“These are the law on electric energy of Uzbekistan and the law on natural gas. In addition, the draft of the presidential decree on the next stages of the reform of the electricity sector was submitted to the Presidential Administration. This document also envisaged all measures for the formation of a competitive market in the field of electricity and natural gas, defining the stages of transition to this market, free formation of prices and wider attraction of private investments. Within the framework of the general concept of creating competitive markets, the rules for creating and regulating the energy market are being considered,” the deputy minister said.
He also added that 6 projects are being implemented to decommission TPP based on old technologies and start new ones.
It should be recalled that at the press conference on November 16, dedicated to the problems of electricity, Sherzod Khodjayev said that there is a negative gap of 15 million kWh between the daily demand and supply of energy supply.
He also noted that the problems in the supply of electricity are related to the lack of fuel, that is, natural gas.
The deputy minister could not comment on the question of the exclusive rights granted to the Industrial Energy Group for gas export by a closed decision. At the press conference, he did not deny that this company was given oil and gas fields.
Earlier, it was reported that there was a threat of blackout in Uzbekistan, and because of this, the Ministry of Energy imposed restrictions on the supply of electricity.
The ministry also answered journalists’ questions about the restrictions.
