ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said that the export of electricity from the Central Asian states to Afghanistan and Pakistan was technically feasible and economically viable.
The technical assessment completion report on the Central Asia-South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM), prepared by ADB’s Principal Energy Specialist Jim Liston, recommends export of electricity in the region. It said the export of 1,000MW from the Central Asia to South Asia (CASA 1000) was technically and economically viable.
The report addresses technical viability and outline parameters of the proposed 500kilovolts (KV) high voltage direct current transmission link. It noted that the electric demand in Afghanistan and Pakistan was sufficient to use all of Tajik and Kyrgyz exports, which were viable only during summer season.
The cost estimates of up to $1 billion and viable economic return of approximately 20 percent. The report called marginal the high projected costs and low projected export quantities, combined with security concerns, purchaser credit-rating issues and hydrological risks.
It said the stakeholders had accepted the report and decided to proceed for the detailed feasibility of the project. The Central Asian states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic are interested in exporting their surplus electricity to energy deficient South Asian neighbours, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Presently Uzbekistan is exporting 220KV to Afghanistan while another similar capacity transmission line is under construction between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. ADB is working on the feasibility of CASA-1000 with a new transmission link. It would be built with the assistance of international financial institutions, including ADB, the World Bank (WB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and USAID.
The report added that terms of reference were comprehensive, but the tasks were more complicated than originally envisaged. The technical aspects of estimating surplus energy in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan proved to be difficult, as did allocating regional and country economic benefits. Additional difficulties were caused by financial crises, while costs and exchange rates fluctuated widely, requiring repeated work on cost estimates and tariff calculations.
The high number of stakeholders also complicated decision making, with a bilateral and three multilateral institutions and four countries being involved. During the early stages of the project some countries were reluctant to divulge data, but this improved as the project progressed, the report said.
