DUSHANBE, January 24, Asia-Plus  -- Additional 1 million kWh of daily electrical power will be supplied to Dushanbe starting from January 24, Deputy Dushanbe Mayor, Jamshed Mansourov, announced at a news conference yesterday. 

This amount of electricity is supplied to the Tajik capital due to reduction of the supply of daily electrical power to the Tajik aluminum smelter by one million kWh.  

In the meantime, speaking to journalists, Mahamdrasoul Nouraliyev, head of Dushanbe Electric Systems, said that his enterprise is not authorized to distribute electrical power.  “It is prerogative of power holding Barqi Tojik,” Nouraliyev said.  

Mansourov noted that Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had reduced electricity supplies to Tajikistan because unusually cold weather had led to a higher demand for power in those countries.  “Besides, water levels at the Norak reservoirs have dropped seven meters below standard level that has caused reduction of electricity supplies to Dushanbe,” the deputy mayor said.   

According to him, the first unit of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant, which was launched don January, has not yet been working in full capacity.  Moreover, 50 percent of electrical power generated by this facility is used for continuing work on the construction of the Sangtuda-1 station, Mansourov said.  .