MANILA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday said it has approved additional grant financing of 15 million U.S. dollars to scale up Tajikistan's ongoing project to reconnect its power system to the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) through interconnections with neighboring Uzbekistan.
The ADB said the additional financing will construct a new 22-kilometer, 500-kilovolt transmission line in northern Tajikistan, between the country's Sughd substation and the New Syrdarya substation in Uzbekistan.
It will scale up the transmission capacity for power exports and imports among CAPS countries and strengthen infrastructure to prevent grid failures that lead to blackouts.
Moreover, the project will ensure that Tajikistan's power system is equipped to provide regulating capacity for the smooth integration of renewable energy in the region. In the long term, it will be a crucial component of the power evacuation scheme for the Rogun hydropower plant in Tajikistan. ■
