Some local experts attribute the electricity blackout that hit the country on October 28 to negligence of power engineering specialists.

The say the accident was predictable because power engineering specialists do not observe the rules of operation of hydraulic facilities. 

One expert, speaking on the basis of anonymity, said, “Tajikistan adopted the law on safety of hydropower facilities and a number of other standard acts regulating the rules of operation of hydraulic facilities in 2010.  However, not all relevant agencies observe them.”

According to him, one of the main points of those documents provides for mandatory examination of declaration of safety of the hydraulic facilities.

“Such an examination is conducted to reveal risky zones of the facility.  But for some reasons, allocation of funds for such examination is considered waste of money. The only hydropower facility in Tajikistan which is operated on the basis of the declaratory examination is the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP),” the source added.  

Some sources say Russian specialists have been invited to ascertain the cause of the blackout.

Although Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) denies this information as unfounded, they say a group of Russian specialists led by Dmitry Radkevich, who has lately served as head of the Hydraulic Facilities Safety Center at the Russian Ministry of energy, have already begun working at the Nurek HPP.

Meanwhile, a special commission that has been set up to ascertain the cause of the recent electricity blackout has still failed to finish its work.  .

Recall, Tajikistan was hit by three-hour nationwide blackout on October 28.

The Tajik capital Dushanbe was plunged into darkness by a power failure Friday evening.  The electricity gave out at 6:30 pm and returned at 9:30 pm.

Barqi Tojik that operates the Nurek hydroelectric power plant (HPP), which provides up to three-quarters of the country's power, said on October 30 that there was an outage at the facility.

All regions of Tajikistan, except the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), which is fed by the Pamir Energy Company, have been plunged into darkness by an unexpected electricity blackout just one day before the start of work on stemming the flow of the Vakhsh River for construction of the Roghun HPP mega-dam. 

Russian state-run news agency Sputnik on October 29 cited unnamed sources as saying the blackout affects 90 percent of the country and that there were two possible causes.

The first is that the authorities have reportedly decided to insure themselves during the stemming of the Vakhsh River, while they were carrying out explosions.

The second version is that there has been an accident on the LEP-500 power line, which provides electricity to most of the country, Sputnik reported.