The Ministry of Energy of the Kyrgyz Republic and the British company MINDDOCK LIMITED DBA Enterprise Energy Investments signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of the Upper Naryn Cascade of HPPs. Press service of the ministry reported.
The purpose of the document is the joint implementation of the project for the construction of the Upper Naryn HPP cascade. It includes four hydroelectric power plants (Akbulun, Naryn — 1, 2, 3) with a total installed capacity of 237.7 megawatts and an average annual output of 942.4 million kilowatt-hours.
According to Minister of Energy Taalaibek Ibraev, construction of the Upper Naryn HPP cascade is part of the elimination of the electricity shortage.
«The number of electricity consumers is increasing from day to day. We, the power sector specialists, must uninterruptedly provide the population with electricity. I think that if we build the Upper Naryn HPP cascade, we will increase electricity generation in Naryn and Issyk-Kul zones, meet the requirements for the security of the energy system of Kyrgyzstan and reduce the deficit in the regions,» he said.
Within the framework of the memorandum, the parties exchanged views on further cooperation and discussed a number of issues for the further development of mutually beneficial partnership in the field of electric power industry.
The document takes effect from the date of its signing until April 15, 2023. If the parties fail to fulfill their obligations before this time, the memorandum will be automatically terminated.
It became known last summer that in Hong Kong (PRC) an arbitral award was made in the proceedings on the claim of RusHydro PJSC against Kyrgyzstan regarding the construction project of the Upper Naryn cascade of HPPs. The claims of the plaintiff were partially satisfied.
It was ruled that the Kyrgyz Republic is obliged to compensate the funds invested by RusHydro PJSC in the project for the construction of the Upper Naryn HPP cascade through loans issued to the joint venture Verkhnenarynskiye HPPs CJSC.
In 2018, RusHydro PJSC filed a lawsuit in The Hague to recover $37 million spent on the construction of the Upper Naryn HPP cascade. The Russian company terminated the contract with the government of Kyrgyzstan. The Board of Directors approved the termination of PJSC RusHydro’s participation in Verkhnenarynskiye HPPs CJSC by selling 2.5 million ordinary registered shares, or 50 percent of the authorized capital, in favor of Electric Stations OJSC at a cost determined on the basis of an appraiser’s report.
In February 2022, the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Akylbek Japarov announced the end of the disputes over the Upper Naryn HPP cascade and the readiness of the Cabinet of Ministers to take on the debts of power engineers.
