EBRD to help Tajikistan establish solar power market

TASHKENT. Aug 14 - A power failure in a Central Asian country has affected the entire region's power grid and caused outages in Uzbekistan, the country's Energy Ministry said in a statement. "A power failure in a neighboring country has affected the Central Asian power grid. Consequently, power outages have occurred in Surkhandarya and several other regions of Uzbekistan," the ministry said. As noted, specialists are currently restoring power supply in stages. The Energy Ministry promises to provide additional information later, and the ministry has not specified in which country's power grid the failure has occurred. According to media reports, the failure has occurred in Tajikistan's power grid.

MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) - Electricity exports from Russia to Kazakhstan rose 20.3% year-on-year in H1 2026 to 1.68 billion kWh, Inter RAO said in a presentation for investors. Kazakhstan accounted for 53% of the company's total exports. Mongolia was another major export destination with 0.45 billion kWh, down 6% year-on-year, and 14% of total exports. Kazakhstan also provided most of Russia's electricity imports at 1.13 billion kWh, down 4.7% and 94% of total imports. Russia's overall electricity exports rose 4% year-on-year to 3.2 billion kWh in H1 2026. Electricity imports fell 5.3% to 1.21 billion kWh, Inter RAO said earlier. Inter RAO is closely monitoring Kazakhstan's plans to abandon imports of electricity from Russia starting in 2027, a member of Inter RAO's management board, Alexandra Panina, said in May. For now, Inter RAO is planning supplies to Kazakhstan in 2026 at the level of the previous year, Panina said. Inter RAO is the sole operator of electricity exports and imports in Russia. The main shareholder of Inter RAO as of the end of March 2024 was Rosneftegaz with 27.63%, while Inter RAO Capital accounted for 29.56%. Another 8.57% as of the end of 2021 belonged to PJSC Federal Grid Company - Rosseti (formerly FGC UES, now merged with PJSC Rosseti ), and 34.24% was in free float.

CHISINAU. Aug 14 - The Moldovan Energy Ministry's tender committee has approved seven bids to construct onshore wind farms with total capacity of 170 MW, with the obligation to install 44 MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS), the Energy Ministry said. The winning investors are required to commission the power plants within 36 months of receiving major producer status. Lumina Noastra, Navitas Energy, Leafwind Energy, Oromaxmontaj, and Summa FIBA Enerji were the four Moldovan companies declared as winners of the tender. The tender has stipulated that the winner must install an energy storage system. The minimum storage capacity is 0.25 MWh for every 1 MW of wind energy supported by the project. A government decision will confirm the exact storage capacity for each project. As previously reported, the Moldovan Energy Ministry announced a tender in December 2025 for the construction of wind farms with total capacity of 170 MW to be complemented by 44 MW of energy storage systems. According to the Energy Ministry, implementing the projects in the tender should boost the share of renewable energy sources in total generation to 11.4% and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.4 million tonnes of CO2. The tender is the first time that an energy storage component has been included in the creation of generating capacity. The Energy Ministry last summer successfully held a tender for the construction of 165 MW of renewable energy generation facilities, including 60 MW of solar power plants and 105 MW of wind power plants. The solar power plants were commissioned that autumn. Private investment to construct the 165 MW renewable energy facility totaled around 190 million euros. According to the Energy Ministry, the currently installed capacity of renewable energy sources (RES) in Moldova exceeds 1000 MW. Solar energy accounts for the largest share at around 73%, followed by wind power and biogas. RES in Moldova increased 16% year-on-year to generate 800 million kWh in 2025, providing nearly one quarter of the country's electricity consumption.