Uzbekistan’s ministry of Energy has announced that a new $380 million project to enhance the performance of the National Electric Grids of Uzbekistan (NEGU) has been approved by the World Bank.
The Electricity Sector Transformation And Resilient Transmission Project is to ensure a reliable energy supplies to millions of households and businesses across Uzbekistan. It is supported by $380 million in credit from the International Development Association (part of the World Bank Group), and a $43 million loan from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under the Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative Facility.
The government of Uzbekistan will receive this financing at very low interest rates and a long repayment period, of up to 40 years. The GCF will also provide a $4 million grant to cover selected project activities.
The project aims to support Uzbekistan in its clean energy transition by improving the transmission network’s capacity to integrate renewable energy produced by the private sector. It is intended to contribute to Uzbekistan’s plans to decarbonise its electricity sector, directly support the integration of 1500 MW of renewable energy into the power grid, and mobilise private investment into the country’s renewable energy sector.
Uzbekistan’s electricity demand is expected to grow to over 100 TWh by 2030, a significant increase from 61 TWh in 2018. It has over 250 000 km of electricity transmission and distribution lines, most of which were built during the Soviet period and are now past their useful economic life.
This project with the World Bank is one of several major projects being undertaken in Uzbekistan to upgrade its electricity infrastructure, improve digital and telecoms technologies to improve monitoring, control, and operation of the power transmission system, and support NEGU’s transformation by introducing new business processes covering financial, operational, and commercial performance, digitisation, operations and planning functions, corporate governance, cyber security, and the transition to a competitive electricity market via market reforms
Linkedin
