World Bank supports grid upgrades in Uzbekistan

The World Bank has approved a project to help the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU) modernise the country’s obsolete power transmission infrastructure and enable greater penetration of renewables.

The World Bank announced the approval of the Electricity Sector Transformation And Resilient Transmission Project last week.

As part of the initiative, the government of Uzbekistan will receive a total of USD 423 million (EUR 355m) in loans from the World Bank entity IDA and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) at “very low-interest rates” and with a repayment period of up to 40 years. The financing will be accompanied by a USD-4-million grant from the GCF to cover selected project activities.

According to the announcement, the project will directly support the grid integration of 1,500 MW of renewable energy and rally private investments in the sector.

"This latest financing will help us reach our goal of 25% of energy consumption deriving from renewable sources by 2030," Uzbekistan’s energy minister Alisher Sultanov said in an e-mailed press release. "It will also be a key component of Uzbekistan’s ambitious, wider strategy to develop environmentally friendly renewable sources of energy to meet our growing electricity demand," the minister added.

The government of Uzbekistan recently selected Masdar for the construction of a 457-MW solar park in Sherabad district. The project is part of Uzbekistan’s 1-GW solar deployment programme that aims to support the country’s goal of building 5 GW of solar parks by 2030 to meet rising electricity demand.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.840)

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