Turkmenistan proves to be reliable in power engineering potential

Turkmenistan is self-sufficient in energy production and is exporting it to other countries. Turkmenistan's power stations operate on natural gas, the cheapest fuel, of which there are immense reserves in the country.
Electricity output is up on the same period last year, a report said.

Energy production is an essential sector of the economy and its level of development determines the progress of technology and labour productivity in the national economy. This is the reason which makes every state base its development on its own fuel and energy resources.
Independent Turkmenistan possesses considerable reserves of fuel and energy, mainly oil and natural gas. The country's major oil deposits are situated in western areas, whereas its gas deposits are located in the central and southern Murgap-Tejen areas.
The power-engineering network is based on thermal power stations located 300-500 km apart and all operating on natural gas. The Mary power station in southern Turkmenistan with its eight units and total capacity of 1,685 MW is Turkmenistan's largest power-generating facility.

The established capacity of Turkmenbasy thermal power station in western Turkmenistan is 590 MW. This unique station operates on purified sea water provided by two water distilling units with a capacity of 1,150 tons of purified water an hour. The station's basic fuel is gas and the reserve fuel is diesel oil produced at Turkmenbasy oil refinery.
The established capacity of Buzmeyin power station (the main power feeder of the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat) equals 248 MW. As part of the presidential plan to develop Turkmenistan's power-engineering system, a gas turbine device has been installed at Buzmeyin station by the US General Motors.
The established capacity of Balkanabat power station in western Turkmenistan, with its four gas-turbine generators equals 48 MW, and it operates on associated oil gas. The outdated equipment of the station will be replaced.
Currently work is under way on installing a second power unit with a capacity of 80 MW at Seydi thermal power station in eastern Turkmenistan. Following the scheduled modernization, the established capacity of all power stations will increase significantly.

The presence of huge reserves of natural gas in Turkmenistan makes it possible to achieve an increase in production capacity. Turkmenistan's power-transmitting network has a 500-kV potential, which means it can be part of the unified energy grid of Central Asia.
Following the operation of the Serdar PS-500 kV substation in the town of Seydi in 2001, Turkmenistan's power-engineering system became self-sufficient and able to operate independently from the unified energy system of Central Asia.
Turkmenistan is currently a state with a surplus of energy output and the country's immense natural gas reserves and growing output allows it to increase the generation and export of electricity. At present Turkmenistan exports its electricity to Tajikistan. The amount supplied depends on this country's demands.

For efficient and mutually-advantageous cooperation in power engineering, Turkmenistan proposes to set up a single power grid for ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) member states -- namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- and based on the existing power-distributing system for the mutual exchange of electricity and to level down the load peaks.
This unification of the power systems of various countries would have a number of technical and economic advantages, including increasing the reliability and quality of power supplies, and reducing the output of power stations -- thus saving energy -- due to the coordinated schedules of load and limited reserves of production capacity.

Due to the creative work of the Turkmen power engineers, the national energy system of Turkmenistan has become a dynamic sector with a reliable future. This is proved by the results of the first three months of 2002, when total electricity output volumes equalled 3.3 bn kWh in January-March 2002, an 8.5 % rise on the same period of 2001.