DUSHANBE, January 25, Asia-Plus  -- In 2007, losses in Tajikistan’s electricity system amounted to 13.4 percent, Deputy Energy and Industries Minister, Poulod Muhiddinov, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 24. 

 Tajikistan last year generated some 18 billion kWh of electrical power; of this amount, 10 percent of power were lost for technical reasons and a 3.4 percent loss resulted from illegal consumption of electricity without meters, the deputy minister said.  

Muhididnov also denied rumors about smuggling Tajik electricity into neighboring countries as “absolutely unfounded.”  According to him, they last year replaced 95 ordinary electricity meters at substations in areas bordering on Uzbekistan with the electronic ones.  “The electronic meters record power exports more precisely,” the deputy minister said.  

He also noted that Tajikistan does not supply electrical power to neighboring countries in autumn-winter period.  “We export electricity only during the summer months, when we have energy surplus,” Muhididnov said.  

In the meantime, speaking to journalists at a news conference on January 22, Sharifkhon Samiyev, head of power holding Barqi Tojik, said that Tajikistan is currently supplying electrical power to neighboring Afghanistan at the rate of 30,000 kWh per day at request of Afghan authorities.