The President of Kyrgyzstan posted a comment on his Facebook page in connection with the situation in which power industry specialists started using rolling blackouts.
According to him, «in Soviet times, we had an excess of electricity production, and we exported it to neighboring countries.»
«Unfortunately, not a single hydroelectric power station has been built over the years of independence. Our population has more than doubled. The number of buildings has increased exponentially. If in 1991 electricity consumption was 9 billion, today it is about 16 billion.
High power transformers and high voltage lines were also not updated. Depreciation of electrical equipment reached more than 80 percent. These structures were built during the Soviet Union and are still in operation.
At the same time, the debt of the power industry is 137 billion soms. Roughly speaking, the domestic power sector is half-dead,» Sadyr Japarov wrote.
He noted that electricity is provided to the population at 77 tyiyns, low-income families — 50 tyiyns, mountainous and remote areas — 77 tyiyns without a limit, and all this is a burden that is being added to the existing debt.
The head of state added that about 50 medium and small hydropower plants are being built, and preparations are underway for the construction of Kambarata HPP-1.
«I receive direct information about the current situation in the power sector, there were no rolling blackouts. Electricity consumption has increased significantly due to extreme cold, the equipment is overloaded. In this regard, we are forced to temporarily turn off electricity in order to save the equipment and prevent emergency shutdowns,» he explained.
According to the President, if work to reduce energy consumption is not carried out on time, this could lead to a systemic failure not only in the energy system of Kyrgyzstan, but also in the unified energy system of Central Asia (there will be a risk of a repeated system failure like on January 25, 2022).
He also apologized to the people of Kyrgyzstan. «God forbid, we will get out of the winter well. We apologize to the population for some inconveniences caused,» wrote Sadyr Japarov.
He also said that, taking into account the aforementioned, starting from May 2023, the electricity tariff will be increased from 77 tyiyns to 1 som.
«If we don’t do this, we risk losing our energy industry forever, because the cost of electricity produced by us at 21 tyiyns is added to the expenses on payment to power engineers, replacement of outdated transformers, wires, poles, and the cost of 1 kilowatt of electricity in the end is 2 som 38 tyiyns,» the head of state concluded.
On January 19, at a meeting of Parliament, Minister of Energy Taalaibek Ibraev admitted fact of rolling blackouts in the republic. According to him, if the electricity is not turned off for 1-1.5 hours, the transformers may fail. From that moment on, power industry specialists began to officially publish information on areas and time of the planned blackouts.
