Minister of energy of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamahmudov shared the information on efforts to prepare for the upcoming winter season in the interview with the Lolazor podcast.
“Preparations for this year’s autumn-winter season began well in advance. As early as February, our president gave instructions to prepare all systems — production, transport, distribution and generation — based on the experience of previous years,” he said.
The minister emphasized that much attention was focused on boosting energy generation and bringing additional capacity throughout the year. He noted that in past years, the main challenge had been the shortage of generation, with consumption rising but insufficient new capacities being launched.
“The first priority is to bring renewable generation capacity on stream. Later, I will provide data on what and how much capacity has been added and what results have been achieved. The key point is that reserves of all types of fuel have been secured,” Jurabek Mirzamahmudov said.
Gas storage
He said over 5.1 billion cubic meters of gas have been stored in underground gas storage facilities for the winter season, an increase of 1.1 billion cubic meters compared to last year.
There are two underground gas storage facilities in Uzbekistan — Gazli and Khojaabad. Gazli gas storage facility (owned by Gazli Gas Storage, a company linked to businessman Bakhtiyor Fazilov) has seen its capacity increase from 3 to 4.5 billion cubic meters. Previously, it was reported that the capacity was expected to double to 6 billion cubic meters by 2025.
“More than 4 billion cubic meters of gas have been stored in Gazli and over 790 million cubic meters in Khojaabad,” Jurabek Mirzamahmudov noted.
He also mentioned that a working group had been set up to study the possibility of restarting the Sokh gas storage facility, located in Kyrgyzstan, with compressors and other facilities situated in Uzbekistan (Sokh district is an exclave territory of Uzbekistan). “All technological facilities on the territory of Uzbekistan belong to our country. Negotiations are ongoing and, as you can see, all issues are being resolved gradually,” he explained.
When asked whether the gas in storage is domestically sourced or imported, the minister clarified: “Once gas enters the pipeline, it becomes one single gas. Therefore, it is single gas, but it remains on Uzbekistan’s balance sheet.” He also mentioned that the 5.7-fold increase in gas imports in the past eight months was partly due to gas being imported for the storage facilities.
Regarding potential power outages and gas supply restrictions at gas filling stations during the winter, the minister pointed to last year’s challenges, which included compressor failures and technical malfunctions.
“On 13 December, the temperature dropped to -18, -20 degrees Celsius, leading to minor restrictions for three days. The main restrictions came when disruptions occurred in February, following an accident on the 110 kV Bukhara-Gazli electricity line, which halted gas supplies from the Gazli facility. Diesel generators were connected, but consumption remained high, resulting in a shortfall of 40 million cubic meters of gas. Restrictions were imposed on gas stations for one week during that period,” the minister reminded.
Renewables
Mirzamahmudov also highlighted that the production of energy from renewable sources had increased significantly this year, which was not the case last year.
Between January and August, 5.8 billion kWh of electricity was generated from solar and wind plants, accounting for 10.6% of total generation — an 11.7-fold increase compared to the same period last year. At the same time, electricity generation by gas, coal and hydro power plants fell from 51.8 to 48.6 billion kWh (-6%).
However, he cautioned that renewable energy had its limitations. “The main drawback is the instability of the operation. At peak times, we can generate up to 2000−2200 MW from solar and wind, equivalent to 25 million kW⋅h per day. But when the wind stops or it gets cloudy, production drops sharply. That is why we have only been able to achieve full capacity since April, after completing testing of automation and telemetry systems”.
The minister pointed out that, unlike last year, there were no power cuts this summer, despite technical failures.
“In the summer months, we imposed restrictions totaling 350 million kWh. This year, there have been accidents and other technical failures, but no restrictions due to a lack of capacity have been introduced,” he concluded.
