A few days ago, a senior Kyrgyz energy official said that the government had agreed with Russia to import 875 million kilowatt hours of electricity in 2023-2024, more than 5% of annual national consumption. This is due to the fact that the country is experiencing a serious lack of generation. However, alongside the conclusion of an agreement with the Russian Federation, Bishkek is implementing a joint project with the PRC of several power plants, the full capacity of which will meet the needs of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China adjacent to Kyrgyzstan. .
This deal with Russia is part of Kyrgyzstan’s broader plan to import up to 2.2 billion kWh of electricity this year. The penultimate year, the last year for which complete data is available, Kyrgyzstan produced 15 billion kWh and consumed 16.3 billion kWh. The need for imports only increased last year, 2022, when Kyrgyzstan purchased 2.8 billion kWh from abroad.
This year, the country has turned to its closest neighbors for resupply. In January, Kyrgyzstan paid $4 million to import 138.6 million kWh of electricity from Kazakhstan. A month later, it began receiving electricity from Turkmenistan as part of a deal to import 1.6 billion kWh from that country.
In other words, the republic is experiencing a growing shortage of production, but at the same time all new capacities ready for commissioning will work for foreign consumers, despite the needs within the state. Even a memorandum of intent has been signed on the construction of a 500KV Kyrgyzstan-China power transmission line and several small hydropower plants for similar export purposes.
To understand, the republic is actively fighting the shortage of electricity, the crisis of the industry, spending a lot of money on the purchase of the missing capacities of its neighbors, but is ready to supply serious volumes to neighboring China. In fact, Kyrgyzstan transfers all its efforts and abilities to serve the interests of its neighbor, receiving little in return (except the evil and dirtiness of the organization of production), because even the implementation CHP and HPP projects is undertaken by the Chinese side, and the neighboring republic only provides territory and resources.
The country’s energy system has been surviving as best it has for a year, its needs and demand on the domestic market are only increasing, which means only one thing: Bishkek will simply have to go into debt again and ask for help from its neighbors in order to provide friendly China with what it really needs at the same time. Moreover, this product will be produced in Kyrgyzstan itself.
