DUSHANBE, November 9, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- An accident took place at the power transmission line Norak-Regar today morning at around 6:35 am, and therefore, practically all hydropower plants in the country were automatically shut down, Nozirjon Yodgori, a spokesman for Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding, said.

According to him, sharp change in the weather from warm to cold has led to rising electricity consumption that has caused overload of the power grid and automatic shutdown of hydropower plants.

“Over the past several days, Tajikistan’s power systems have been operated in an automous regime, out of the Central Asian power grid, and therefore, the accident has caused electricity blackout practically across the whole country,” the spokesman said.

He noted that effects of the accident had been partially removed and electricity supplies to some areas had already been resumed.  “The accident effects will be completely removed within the next few hours and regular electricity supplies will be resumed,” Yodgori said.