500 kV power line under construction from Samarkand to Tashkent
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500 kV power line being built from Samarkand to Tashkent
A new double-circuit 500-kilovolt (kV) power transmission line is under construction from Samarkand to Tashkent, the Energy Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the large-scale project is being carried out in Samarkand province’s Nurabad district in cooperation with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA. The project includes a 1,000-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic plant, a 1,336 megawatt-hour (MWh) energy storage system, and new 500 kV and 220 kV transmission lines.
One of the main components is a 350-km line from Nurabad district to the Halka substation in Tashkent province. It will run through Samarkand, Jizzakh, Syrdarya and Tashkent provinces. Work on the pylons’ foundations has been completed, and installation has started.
The line will be built using newly designed 500 kV double-circuit pylons, which are being used in Central Asia for the first time. The pylons were created with a special new design, and their technical solutions were tested by India’s Larsen & Toubro. As a result, the structures represent a new solution for Central Asia’s energy infrastructure.
The project also includes an additional 150-km, 220 kV line, which is about 50% complete. It is scheduled for completion in May 2027, bringing the total length of the project’s transmission lines to 500 km.
Construction of the 500 kV Nurabad-Tashkent Halka line is planned to be completed in the first quarter of 2028.
“The new transmission lines will help integrate the solar plant and energy storage system being built in Nurabad into the unified power grid, expand the capacity to carry electricity from new generation sources in the central area to Tashkent city, Tashkent province and the valley provinces, and improve the stability and reliability of power supply in those areas,” the ministry said in a statement.
It was reported earlier that energy facilities described as the largest of their kind in Central Asia had been commissioned in Uzbekistan, that the extra fee for reconnecting consumers cut off from electricity or natural gas over debt had been scrapped, and that businesses that use electricity responsibly would no longer have to prepay 100% of their power bills.