Toktogul Hydropower Shutdown Triggers Central Asia Outages
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Widespread power disruptions across Central Asian countries on 14 August were caused by the shutdown of two hydrogenerators at the Toktogul Hydropower Plant in Kyrgyzstan.
The incident overloaded the North–East–South transit line of Kazakhstan’s unified power system, resulting in the separation of its southern zone from the Central Asian unified power system, Kazakhstan’s KEGOC said.
The Central Asian unified power system includes Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Following the technological failure, power disruptions were recorded in four countries across the region.
In Kazakhstan, the outages affected Almaty, Zhambyl, Turkestan, Kyzylorda and Karaganda regions, as well as the Zhetisu, Abai and Ulytau regions. Power supplies in these areas were fully restored in the second half of the day.
In Uzbekistan, the shutdown of the neighbouring country’s power system also affected the operation of the unified grid. Electricity supplies to consumers were restored in stages. Earlier, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy apologized to consumers for the inconvenience and said work was continuing to address the consequences of the incident.
Power disruptions also occurred in Bishkek and other regions of Kyrgyzstan, as well as in Dushanbe and several settlements in Tajikistan.
A special commission will be established to determine the causes of the technological failure. It will investigate the circumstances surrounding the shutdown of the two hydrogenerators at the Toktogul Hydropower Plant and the subsequent disruption of the power systems of countries in the region.
