DUSHANBE, December 1, 2008, Asia-Plus - Russian-built hydroelectric power plant (HPP) Sangtda-1 has generated first one billion kWh of electrician power.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Rakhmetulla Alzhanov, director general of open joint-stock company (OJSC), Sangtuda HPP-1, said that the station had produced one billion kWh of electricity by 11:30 a.m. local time of November 30.

We will recall that three of four units of the Sangtuda-1 station have already been introduced into operation and the plant currently generates more than 4 million kWh of electrical power per day.  

The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s.  By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.  The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.  

Russia retains a 75 percent share in the power plant, which will generate a projected 2.7 billion kWh of electricity per annum.  The power station will have an estimated capacity of 670 MW.