DUSHANBE, February 14, Asia-Plus - Following the accidental flooding of the Pamir-1 hydropower plant of PamirEnergy on Monday February 5, high capacity pumps have been in continual operation to evacuate the remaining water from within the plant. The last remaining water was removed at about 2:00 p.m. yesterday allowing access to the turbine room situated in the lower part of the facility Mahedi Lalani, Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Pamir Energy Company (PamirEnergy), said.

According to him, a team of experts, comprising specialists from both PamirEnergy and Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding, entered the lower basement housing of the turbines and were able to view the damage for the first time since the accident.  The preliminary conclusion by the joint team of experts, indicate that the damage, which appears to have destroyed unit 2 completely, has been caused by a severe ‘hydraulic shock’.  Upon preliminary visual inspection, Units 1, 3 and 4 appear to have suffered minimal damage.  This needs to be confirmed through more thorough inspection.

Specialists will continue their detailed investigations in the coming days and shall provide recommendations on how to proceed to rehabilitate the plant and specifically recover at least partial generation capacity within the shortest time possible.  PamirEnergy will inform the public as more details become available.

In order to accelerate the rehabilitation process, PamirEnergy management have identified essential parts and equipment (including identification and initiating contact with possible suppliers) for items that have already been confirmed as needing replacement, Mahedi Lalani said.