Uzbekistan is transferring electricity supply to private companies. The Samarkand Regional Electric Networks will be taken over by the Turkish company Aksa Elektrik. Electric networks in four more regions will also be transferred to private management.
At the forum “Powering the Future – Sustainable Energy for New Uzbekistan,” held in Tashkent on December 5, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev said:
“Starting this year, we have begun to apply the principles of private partnership not only in the production of electricity, but also in its delivery to consumers. In particular, we have reached an agreement with the Turkish company Aksa Elektrik on transferring the Samarkand regional power grids to private management. Within the framework of the project, this company will take over the operational management of the network, invest in it, modernize the grids, and gradually reduce losses by twofold. As a result, an average of $20 million will be saved annually.
Based on this experience, next year we will offer the management of the Jizzakh and Syrdarya power grids to investors, and in 2027, the power grids of Namangan and Tashkent regions as well.”
On the same day, the president received a delegation of the Republic of Turkey led by Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar. The meeting was also attended by Cemil Kazancı of Aksa and Ahmet Cengiz of Cengiz Energy.
During the meeting, it was emphasized that projects for the construction of modern power plants with a total capacity of 1.8 gigawatts and worth 1 billion dollars have already been implemented in Uzbekistan jointly with Turkish companies.
In 2024, Aksa Elektrik Group and Uzbekistan Regional Electric Networks JSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the “Modernization of Electricity Distribution Networks in Uzbekistan through Public-Private Partnership.”
At that time, it was also noted that Aksa Group is well acquainted with Uzbekistan, and since the first quarter of 2022, Aksa Energy has been the largest Turkish energy investor in the country.