Pakistan’s NESPAK, in a joint venture with Turkey’s DOLSAR, has won a contract for the Sustainable Hydropower Project in Uzbekistan, which involves the installation of three small hydropower plants on the Aksu River.
Dr. Tahir Masood, managing director of NESPAK, said the plants will have a total capacity of 24 MW and will be located in the Kashkadarya Region. The plants are the Rabat Hydropower Project, Chappasuy Hydropower Project and Tamshush Hydropower Project, with associated 22-km-long 35- to 110-kV transmission lines, as well as mini-hydro units of total 1 MW in aggregate capacity. Total cost of the project will be US$75 million.
Joint-Stock Company Uzbekhydroenergo is the project executing agency. It received financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for an EPC “turnkey lump-sum” contract and for the project supervision consulting services to implement the project. The NESPAK-DOLSAR JV will provide services in the role of project consultants for project management, project performance monitoring, design review of technical documents and construction supervision.
The project will support Uzbekistan’s national goals to increase renewable energy generation and diversify its energy mix. The project has multifaceted interventions to help Uzbekistan:
- Deploy small and mini hydropower plants to add 25 MW of renewable energy capacity;
- Develop a hydropower master plan to optimize a future investment program, which will help develop planning capacity for climate resilience and environmental sustainability; and
- Compliment sector reforms by strengthening the institutional capacity of JSC Uzbekhydroenergo
