DUSHANBE, January 14, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- In 2012, the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) reportedly generated 1.87 billion kWh of electricity, which was 16 percent fewer than in 2011.

According to open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 plant, the reduction in the electricity generation has resulted from breach by Barqi Tojik power holding (Tajik electricity supplier) of contract commitments on volumes of power supplies.

Under an agreement of sale between Sangtudinskaya GES-1 and Barqi Tojik, the Tajik side must purchase 2.7 billion kWh of electricity per year.  Barqi Tojik, however, accepts not more than 1.9 billion kWh of electrical power per year justifying the breach of the contract by saying that more volumes of the Sangtuda-1 electricity are not needed, Sangtudinskaya GES-1 said.

The Sangtudinskaya GES-1 CEO Sergey Kobtsev notes that the company bears huge losses because of the beach of the contract commitments by Barqi Tojik.

The Tajik and Russian presidents officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP on July 31, 2009.

The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s.  By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.  The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.

Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant.  Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.  

Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.