DUSHANBE, February 28, 2014, Asia-Plus –Tajik President Emomali Rahmon yesterday afternoon received visiting Head of the Board of Open Joint Stock Company Inter RAO YeES (Inter RAO – Unified Energy System of Russia) Boris Kovalchuk.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, the sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral energy cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation.

Operation of the Sangutda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) and repayment of Barqi Tojik (Tajik state-controlled energy supplier)’s debt to the Sangtuda-1 HPP were among major topics of the meeting.

Rahmon and Kovalchuk reportedly also discussed construction of hydropower plants in Tajikistan.

The Sangtuda-1 HPP is located on the Vakhsh River in Khatlon province, some 160 kilometers south of Dushanbe. The plant, consisting of four units with total capacity of 670 MW, was officially commissioned 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 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.

Inter RAO is a diversified energy holding company headquartered in Moscow.  Its business includes power and heat generation, electricity supply, international energy trading, engineering, design and development of electric power infrastructure.  In addition to Russia it controls several energy companies outside Russia including thermal and hydro power plants, grid operators and energy traders. It holds a monopoly on the export and import of electricity in Russia.