Business & Economy

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan suffer major blackout

Nur-Sultan, Jan 25 (EFE).- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan suffered a major blackout in several cities on Tuesday due to a “significant emergency imbalance” in the Central Asian power system, Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC) said in a statement.

Half of Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, the Almaty region, Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent and several Uzbek regions were left without electricity due to the failure.

There is also no electricity in Kyrgyzstan, including in the capital Bishkek, Osh, Jalal-Abad and all other cities, the Kyrgyz news agency AKIpress reported.

Only Tajikistan, which is not fully integrated into the region’s electricity system, was not affected by the blackout, Nozirjon Yodgori, spokesman for the national energy company, told Russia’s Interfax news agency.

In its statement KEGOC said that at 11.59 Nur-Sultan time (06.59 GMT) “a significant emergency imbalance in the Central Asian power system (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan) led to a power surge in North-East-South 500 kV power transmission line in Kazakhstan.”

There was an emergency shutdown of the line as a result.

KEGOC assured that it is “taking measures to rectify” the blackout and restore supply.

The Almaty city council later indicated that electricity had been restored to 50 percent.

The Almaty International Airport said it was operating normally.

Bishkek’s airport was not disrupted either after it switched to its own power supply.

Kyrgyz Energy Minister Doskul Bekmurzaev said the country’s electricity grid was to be restored in phases, but there was currently no hot water, no heating and hospitals are connected to generators. EFE

kk-cae/bsi/jac/lap

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