DUSHANBE, July 25 2013, Asia-Plus - Design and construction works on the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA 1000) are expected to start in 2014, Deputy Minister of energy and Industry, Poulod Muhiddinov, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 24.

According to him, the first stage of the implementation of CASA 1000 is expected to be finished before the end of 2013.

“A multilateral agreement between the four nations is at the stage of completion and each of the nations will sign a separate agreement on purchase and sale of electricity,” said the deputy minister.  “Besides, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will sign a coordination agreement.”

Before the end of this year, each of the nations must choose a contractor for implementation of the project in its territory and also choose a general contractor for the whole project.

We will recall that to pursue the idea of Central Asia - South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM), a concept for developing electricity trade among the countries of the two regions, four countries, including Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia and Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia, have agreed to develop the first project under CASAREM, with more than two countries involvement.  The project aims to establish the necessary transmission and trading infrastructure and systems to enable a trade of about 1300 MW of electricity between Central Asia and South Asia, and is referred to as CASA-1000.

The Project is expected to develop the necessary physical infrastructure and create the institutional and legal framework to transmit surplus power available from existing generation facilities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The physical infrastructure for CASA 1000 is likely to include: a 500 kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system between Tajikistan and Pakistan through Afghanistan; an AC transmission link from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to connect to the HVDC line from Tajikistan to South Asia;  and the necessary electricity sub-stations in Kabul, Peshawar and Sangtuda (in Tajikistan).

The direct implementation of the Project is expected to start at the beginning of the next year.

The World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank have reportedly expressed their readiness to finance the Project.  Besides, Russia expressed interest to invest 500 million U.S. dollars in the CASA 1000 project.