Turkmenistan Power Cut Leaves Eight Afghan Provinces Short of Electricity
Afghanistan’s power utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (Breshna), said an technical problem in Turkmenistan’s state power grid cut imported electricity to Afghanistan at five points on Sunday evening, leaving several provinces facing blackouts and power shortages.
According to Breshna, the outage occurred at around 5:00 p.m. and affected the Andkhoy 220-kV line, the Andkhoy 110-kV line, the Faryab 6-kV line, the Badghis 110-kV line and the Herat 220-kV line.
Breshna said that as a result, the provinces of Balkh, Jowzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Faryab, Badghis and Herat were completely cut off from imported electricity from Turkmenistan. Parts of the provinces of Samangan and Baghlan were also affected by the outage.
The company added that it is in contact with officials from Turkmen Energo and has requested that Afghanistan’s electricity be restored as soon as possible. According to information Breshna received from Turkmenistan, a general problem has developed in that country’s power grid and the system is facing serious technical challenges.
Breshna also said it has made efforts to obtain more electricity from Uzbekistan to make up for the shortfall, but the problem in Turkmenistan’s power network has also affected Uzbekistan’s electricity system.
Turkmenistan is one of Afghanistan’s major sources of imported electricity, and the northern and northwestern provinces of the country depend heavily on its imported power for a significant part of the year.
