Tag Archives: hydropower

Czech investors in Kyrgyzstan’s hydro projects may be a false company

BISHKEK, JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Czech company that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev was lauding for agreeing a multi-million-dollar deal to build new hydropower stations may not even exist.

Less than a week after a triumphant Mr Atambayev was quoted in media talking up Liglass, a company based in a provincial Czech town, as the new backers of a hydropower project that Russia backed out of in 2015, it has emerged that even his own diplomats were warning him that the company only appears to exist on paper.

Kyrgyzstan has staked much of its future economic potential on developing its hydropower. The deal was considered important because

Russia’s Rushydro pulled out of a $700m agreement to develop the hydropower stations in 2015.

Liglass had, according to Mr Atambayev, promised to pay $37m for a 50% stake in the Upper Naryn HPP, which includes two major hydropower projects, and to build and operate a string of smaller hydropower stations.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Czech firm buys into Kyrgyz hydropower

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BISHKEK, JULY 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Liglass Trading, a Czech company, signed a deal with the Kyrgyz government to buy into a major hydropower project that Russia pulled out of in December 2015 after a drop in oil prices and US-led sanctions triggered an economic recession.

The deal means Liglass will pay $37m for a 50% stake in Upper Naryn HPP, the company created to build and operate the Akbulun and Naryn-1 hydropower plants. It will also build 10 smaller hydro stations by end-202o.

Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev hailed the deal.

“The arrival of large-scale private investment in Europe will serve as a strong signal to potential investors from around the world, confirming the readiness of Kyrgyzstan to create all the necessary conditions for doing business and effective implementation of mutually beneficial joint projects,” he was quoted as saying in a government press release.

RusHydro had planned to invest more than $700m into Kyrgyz hydropower before it quit in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

New hydro power plant opens in Georgia

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — Adjaristsqali Georgia, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Power, said that it had completed the construction of the 186MW Shuakhevi Hydro Power Station in Georgia, one of the largest to be built in the last 50 years. Its finance partners for the project were the IFC (part of the World Bank) and Norway’s Clean Energy Invest. The project cost $420m to build and has been under construction since 2013. Speaking at the opening of the plant, Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said that power produced by the plant would be sold during winter, when there is traditionally a deficit. Georgia has been heavily investing in its hydropower capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

CASA-1000 is on schedule, leaders say in Tajik capital

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DUSHANBE, JULY 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — The CASA-1000 electricity generation and supply project, considered an essential Western-based link between Central Asia and South Asia, will be finished this year, as scheduled, leaders of the four nations working on its construction said at a meeting in the Tajik capital.

This is important because CASA- 1000, which will generate electricity through hydropower stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and distribute it to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is the main transnational Central Asia project backed by the West and its financial institutions. The US government has even described it as an important part of a new north-south Silk Road.

The West has lost influence in Central Asia over the last few years to Russia’s military expansionist strategy and China’s trade-orientated ‘Belt and Road’ policy.

Looking to allay fears that timings had slipped, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Kyrgyz PM Sooronbay Jeenbekov and host Tajik President Emommali Rakhmon lined up to talk up progress.

Pakistani news agencies quoted Mr Sharif as saying: “We must make efforts to ensure that the project is completed well in time.”

There are still major security and operational concerns over CASA-1000, though, which need to be solved.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

China’s AIIB lends to Tajikistan

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JUNE 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Bank (AIIB) approved a $60m loan to Tajikistan to part finance the refurbishment of the Nurek Hydropower station and a $114m loan to part-finance a road bypass around Batumi. The AIIB is a new institutional bank that its critics have said is designed to spread Chinese influence. The United States has declined to become a member.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

RusHydro looks to pull out from Armenia

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JUNE 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russia’s RusHydro said that it wanted to sell off the second largest hydropower plant in Armenia, Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade, which produces roughly 10% of Armenia’s power. RusHydro said that it had been in talks with a potential buyer but that these talks had fallen through. In 2015, Russia’s Inter RAO sold its debt-ridden electricity distribution network to a Armenian oligarch after a series of angry street demonstrations against planned electricity price rises.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Inter RAO sues Georgia

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JUNE 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian energy company Inter RAO has begun proceedings at the Stockholm International Arbitration court against Georgia because of losses incurred at its two hydropower plants Khamri-1 and Khamri-2, Georgia’s deputy energy minister Mariam Valishvili told Retuers. It blamed the losses on the devaluation of the Georgian lari and on the government for blocking its move to increase electricity prices.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Inter RAO sues Georgia

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Kyrgyzstan announces hydro tender

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JUNE 1 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan announced a tender for the construction of 14 small hydropower stations across the country, part of its plan to boost electricity production. Hydroelectric power production is an essential part of Kyrgyzstan’s economy. It aims to become an exporter of electricity through the TAPI project that will send power generated by hydro schemes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.

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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Uzbek president reveals hydropower plan

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MAY 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a decree, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that he wanted to develop hydropower stations across the country to plug a power gap. The plan is to build 42 small hydropower stations over the next five years with another 32 being built afterwards. Uzbekistan’s power generation systems has long-needed an overhaul, with its over-reliance on Soviet kit.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)