DUSHANBE, October 28, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- 38 small hydropower plants with capacity of 4 to 400 kW have been introduced into operation in Tajikistan since the beginning of this year, Tojinisso Azizova, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Energy and Industries, told Asia-Plus today.

According to her, the small hydropower plants have been built due to funds provided by the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management, Customs Service and local investors.

These power plants have brought the total number of small hydropower plants in the country 185; 96 of them operate all the year round, while 89 others operate only in autumn-winter period, when country experiences acute shortage of electric power, the spokeswoman noted.

“Under the national long-term program of construction of small hydropower plants for 2009-2020, another 28 small hydropower plants are under construction,” Azizova said.

We will recall that that the government session held on September 29, 2006 endorsed a long-term program of construction of a number of small hydropower electric plants between 2007 and 2020.  Under the program, 71 small power plants are scheduled to be built by 2020.  The total capacity of the plants will be 480.571 million kWh of electricity a year.