New power line to connect Uzbekistan and Afghanistan
Official representatives of Afghanistan's national energy company “Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat” (DABS) announced Sunday about the launch of a new energy project with Uzbekistan, reported TOLONews. The project on the construction of electricity transmission line with a capacity of up to 1,000 megawatts from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan was agreed on the sidelines of the 7th Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA), held in Ashgabat last week. The power line will stretch from the Uzbek substation Surkhan to Pul-e-Khumri, administrative center of the northeastern province of Baghlan. DABS believes that the power line will help to reduce the deficit in power supply of factories and plants. The sides will sign the agreement on this project during the forthcoming official visit of the President Ashraf Ghani to Uzbekistan. About 80% of electricity consumption in Afghanistan is covered on account of import supplies from Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. According to the Afghan inter-ministerial commission for energy, from September 2015 to September 2016, Uzbekistan exported over 1.1 billion kWh of electricity to Afghanistan.
