Turkmenistan has established the Office of International Electric Power Projects.
The decision was taken on Thursday when President Berdimuhamedov had a meeting with DPM Charymurat Purchekov (construction, energy) and the minister for energy, Murat Artykov.
The newly established authority will initially supervise the implementation of TAP500, and subsequently explore and manage the other power export projects of Turkmenistan.
Artykov has been appointed as the head of the Office and relieved of his current responsibility as the minister of energy. Purchekov has been given temporary charge of the ministry.
Artykov was DPM (deputy prime minister) for construction and energy in 2014-2015. From 14 August 2015 to 12 April 2019 he was the head of the representative office of the ministry of energy in Afghanistan where he managed the supply of Turkmen electric energy to Afghanistan. He was the minister of energy from 13 April 2012 to 10 January 2014 and from 12 April 2019 till yesterday.
During the meeting the president also approved the regulations of the ministry of energy and the structure of its central office.
TAP500 is a 500 KV electricity transmission network, designed to meet the power shortages in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Initially it would provide 1700 megawatt of electricity to Pakistan, subsequently to be raised to 4000 megawatt.
The power lines will run from Herat to Kandahar along the route of TAPI. From Kandahar, one branch will enter Pakistan running parallel to TAPI and the other branch will traverse west-to-east inside Afghanistan, connecting with the grids of Kabul and Jalalabad. This line would also meet the national grid of Pakistan at Torkham.
The Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan and the Turkish company Çalik Holding A.Ş signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2018 for the implementation of TAP500 through the territory of Afghanistan.
The agreement for TAP500 between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan was signed in February 2018 at Islim Cheshme, a settlement some five kilometers from the Turkmen border with Afghanistan. It was a historic day when three major initiatives were set in motion:
- Launch of construction work on TAPI to connect the Turkmen segment with the Afghan segment;
- TAP500, a project to transfer electrical energy from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan;
- TAP fiber-optic link between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and ultimately, India; and
In October 2018, an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the TAP transmission line project.
The agreement defines the volumes of electric power that will be supplied to Afghanistan – 300 megawatts each (600 megawatts in total) to Herat and Kandahar with a further increase in volumes up to 1000 megawatts.
In addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan, there are several other countries in the region such as Tajikistan and China that can benefit from the power generation capacity of Turkmenistan.
There is also great potential for supplying electric energy through the Caspian Sea to Caucasus, Turkey, and Europe. /// nCa, 24 January 2020