In Kyrgyzstan, the 2025-2026 winter season may be much harsher than usual. The Minister of Energy of the country, Taalaybek Ibrayev, specifically addressed this issue in an interview with the "Kabar" news agency.
He emphasized that the main problem is related to the depletion of water reserves at the Toktogul hydroelectric power station.
"Compared to last year, there is 1.6 billion cubic meters less water. For example, in 2024, the volume of water was 12.4 billion cubic meters, which also seemed insufficient. This year, even less. This will lead to the loss of approximately 1.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity," Ibraev said.
The Minister also called on the population to comply with the law and use electricity economically. He believes that if every consumer doesn't act responsibly, problems can worsen.
Ibrayev added that the energy crisis is planned to be fully resolved by 2028.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Bakhyt Turabayev also stated that electricity consumption in the country is expected to reach 18.9 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025. For seven months of the year, production amounted to 9.24 billion kilowatt-hours. To make it easier to survive the winter, Kyrgyzstan plans to purchase a total of 4.03 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia.
According to the Ministry of Energy, in 2024, the total consumption in the country amounted to 17.8 billion kilowatt-hours.
The Toktogul Reservoir was built in the mid-1970s and today has a great influence on the water supply not only of Kyrgyzstan, but also of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. The design capacity of the warehouse is 19.5 billion cubic meters.
In 2024, the water level in this reservoir dropped to the lowest level in the last five years. Also, on February 2nd of last year, a major accident occurred at a thermal power plant in Bishkek, causing a sharp increase in the load on hydroelectric power plants. This forced them to increase the volume of water extraction from "Toktogul."
Recall that on January 4 of this year, the volume of water in the reservoir was only 11 billion 96 million cubic meters.
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